I HAVE been misquoted by Safir A. Siddiqui (April 1). Quoting my letter (March 27) in your esteemed daily, he writes: “...he has expressed his exasperation as regards special perks and privileges being enjoyed by fighter pilots and which are not available to education corps officers.”

This is untrue. I never wrote anything like that. I wrote “When we joined the air force, we became aware of the disparity (in emoluments) but, as Mr Anwer said, we considered it right and never made it an issue.”

Then quoting me, he mentions career progression and goes on to compare the nature of the job of a fighter pilot with that of an education officer. For the information of all, the nature of their jobs are world apart and the question of comparison just does not arise.

Career progression is always based on the number of years of service and examination and courses qualified.

My point was that if education officers were not ‘children of a lesser god,’ their career progression should not stop at a rank lesser than the other branches when they reach the seniormost rank in their branch.

He also suggested that education officers should not be in uniform and they should just be called lecturers and professors. The education officers would be just too pleased with that, but the air force arrived on this conclusion after a great deal of consideration of the options available.

Has this gentleman thought of the plethora of disciplinary problems alone that could arise because of being in civvies?

WG-CDR (r) AHMED SHAH JAN Peshawar