Sajad Haider

Sayed Sajad Haider (26 December 1932 – 3 January 2025), better known by his aliases as Nosy Haider and Saviour of Lahore, was a Pakistani fighter pilot and one-star rank officer in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). He was also an author, columnist, businessman, defence analyst, political commentator, and philanthropist.

Born in the Punjab Province, his family later moved to Balochistan, where he grew up alongside Akbar Bugti. In his second year at the Forman Christian College in 1951, he was selected for the RPAF College and commissioned into the Royal Pakistan Air Force in 1953. He completed his Fighter Conversion Course on the Tempest at Mauripur, coming in second place behind Sarfraz Rafiqui. In 1954, Sajad participated in aerial operations against the Faqir of Ipi in Miranshah. Afterwards, he joined the RPAF's first jet unit, the No. 11 Squadron. Excelling in air combat, he trained on the F-86 Sabre in the U.S. and later joined the Falcons aerobatic team, which set a world record with a 16-aircraft formation loop in 1958.

As Squadron Leader of the No. 19 Squadron PAF, Sajad gained fame for leading a devastating blitzkrieg attack on the Pathankot airbase during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, where he destroyed four Indian aircraft on the ground, 11 tanks, and damaged three more. His formation accounted for the destruction of 13 enemy aircraft including two MiG-21s. The following day Sajad led another formation attack on Srinagar Air Force Station, where they destroyed three more enemy aircraft.

Sajad Haider's career had been rife with events that included false accusations and defiance of military rule. In 1973, along with 13 other PAF officers, Haider was falsely accused of treason and mutiny in a supposed coup against the then President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This accusation, devised by Air Chief Zafar Chaudhry, his deputy Saeedullah Khan, and their third in command, Khaqan Abbasi, was later revealed to be completely baseless. Consequently, Haider and the other officers were completely exonerated and Chaudhry and Khan were fired.

While serving in Washington, D.C. as air attaché in the mid-1970s, Haider rejected a bribe from an American executive who was subsequently removed from his job. In coordination with certain Pakistani, Iranian, and American high-level officials, this executive would then be behind a plot that accused Haider of making disparaging remarks about the Shah of Iran, causing diplomatic tensions between Iran–Pakistan. The scheme was later exposed, revealing that they had fabricated the lie in retaliation for Haider rejecting the bribe, as they aimed to profit from illicit defence deals with the Pakistan Air Force. In 1979, Haider confronted General Zia-ul-Haq during a secret meeting at the General Headquarters, criticising the intelligence agencies for manipulating the truth and suppressing the press, and conveyed his disillusionment with the military's conduct towards civilians. Refusing to serve any longer under Zia's rule, Haider resigned from the air force in 1980, ending an illustrious career with very few assets.

Haider formed an aviation, defence, and communications company called Cormorant. He closed the company in 1990 after he refused to take kickbacks from two Pakistan army generals of the Defence Procurement Division including the Director General. A staunch supporter of Imran Khan, Haider donated to Khan's fundraiser for affectees of the 2022 Pakistan floods and received thanks from Khan. In 2023, he was holding a placard in support of Khan, when an Islamabad police officer approached him and began misbehaving, undermining the Commodore's efforts during the 1965 war by parroting him in a taunting way.