APROPOS the letter of Capt S. Afaq Rizvi (Oct 4), and the article ‘A wrong war’ by Zahid Hussain (Sept 9).

This and the replacement of General Akhtar Malik, in the midst of battle show Ayub Khan’s leadership qualities. A more correct appraisal of the situation is given by Air Commodore (r) Sajjad Haider, Brig (r) Javed Hussain and Brig (r) A.R. Siddiqui.

The PAF had achieved near total air superiority. The navy took aggressive action and bombarded Indian naval installations. The army too would have achieved great success had General Akhtar Malik continued to command the offensive in Kashmir.

The attack on Lahore unnerved Ayub Khan and he replaced Akhtar Malik with Yahya Khan.

We need to be clear about facts so that we can learn from history.

M. Hasham Khan

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, October 8th , 2015

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