They're still flying high
The latest nod came from the Chief of Staff of China's People's Liberation Army Air Force, Lieutenant General Wang Gang, who called the PAF's performance in the recent war with India 'a textbook example of precision, discipline, and courage' in the face of unprovoked aggression. The remark came during a high-level visit to Air Headquarters in Islamabad, where General Wang also noted China's keen interest in learning from the PAF's battle-tested integration of Multi-Domain Operations, which says a lot.
That's not a compliment Beijing hands out lightly – especially given its own airpower ambitions. But for those who've watched the PAF over the decades, this shouldn't come as a surprise.
The Pakistan Air Force has always punched well above its weight. It captured international attention during the 1965 war, when a much smaller fleet held its own against a numerically superior Indian Air Force. Some of its wartime manoeuvres became case studies in combat aviation. The legend only grew over time – with stories of PAF pilots flying for Arab states and downing Israeli jets during the Yom Kippur War becoming part of regional military lore.
Even in peacetime, the service maintained its edge, consistently training to a standard that attracted foreign observers, joint drills, and deep bilateral engagements – not least with China, which co-developed the JF-17 Thunder with Pakistan. That same platform has since matured into a credible deterrent force, operated by highly trained PAF squadrons who've adapted to modern hybrid warfare challenges without bloating the budget.
What's more, the PAF's operational discipline and strategic clarity often stand in contrast to the disarray that marks other parts of the country's institutional machinery. Whether it's political paralysis, economic stasis, or diplomatic drift, Pakistan struggles to project stability in most arenas – except when its military, particularly its air wing, is in frame.
So when China singles out the PAF for praise – and explicitly expresses a desire to learn from it – the statement carries weight beyond flattery. It confirms what military analysts have long argued: that the Pakistan Air Force remains one of the region's most competent and coherent fighting forces.
It also reinforces the reality that Pakistan's strategic partnerships are not just alive – they're evolving. China is not lavishing praise as a favour; it is acknowledging value. A battle-tested, professionally run air force with multi-domain integration capabilities is an asset, especially as China gears up for its own next-generation military transformation. And for Pakistan, deeper integration with China's airpower doctrines and technologies could be the edge it needs to maintain parity with a larger neighbour constantly updating its arsenal.
Yet there's a larger implication here, one worth noting. Pakistan's military, and the PAF in particular, has remained committed to hard capability even as fiscal realities have shrunk civilian development space. One might argue whether this allocation of resources is sustainable – that's a different debate – but there is little doubt that it has paid operational dividends.
For a country still fighting an internal insurgency, struggling with fiscal meltdown, and burdened by political disarray, having one institution consistently deliver competence and reliability on the global stage is more than just optics – it's leverage.
That's not to say the country can fly on the wings of the PAF alone. But when the civilian leadership is largely absent from diplomatic or economic strategy, and parliament rarely debates serious national security matters, such moments of international recognition carry weight far beyond military circles.
They serve as reminders of what disciplined focus can achieve, even under systemic stress.
So yes, the PAF deserves the recognition. Not just for what it did this summer, but for the decades of consistency, evolution, and excellence that led up to it. If anything still commands quiet respect for Pakistan abroad, it's not its economy, its democracy, or its diplomacy. It's the precision of its pilots.
And they're still flying high.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Express Tribune
BRICS declares the South is done begging
As the world frays under trade wars, resource conflicts and the US credibility unravels under the weight of its own aggressive exceptionalism, BRICS declared that the emperor has no clothes and the Global South was done waiting for crumbs from imperial banquet tables. Held under the shadow of US belligerence and amid fresh wounds inflicted by wars equipped and backed by the West, the bloc's latest summit took on the air of a reawakened Non-Aligned Movement, with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asserting the Washington must stop 'behaving like an empire and 'begin respecting the sovereignty of others'. His response came in response to US Donald Trump's renewed tariff theatrics in the wake of the bloc's asserting of its sovereignty. The alliance's leaders reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism, sovereign equality and a restructuring of global governance to reflect a 'new multipolar reality.' In a joint declaration the bloc warned that rising protectionism threatened global trade and called for reforms of institutions like the UN Security Council and the IMF so they better reflect emerging economies. The declaration was unusually muscular and named the reality of Gaza as a 'war of aggression' and condemned tactics such as starvation sieges that even NATO countries tiptoe around. Furthermore, it strongly backed Palestinian self-determination and expressing 'grave concern' over Israel's Gaza war and reiterating support for a Palestinian state within 1967 borders. The declaration also denounced the US–Israeli bombing of Iran's nuclear sites as a 'violation of international law'. Blasting trade wars, the communique took aim at 'unilateral tariff…barriers' that 'flout WTO regulations'. One major theme at Rio was financial autonomy. Rio's leaders agreed to build out practical infrastructure for cross-border payments in local currencies and endorsed a BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative – an alternative to SWIFT – to make trade faster and safer within the bloc. The system, spearheaded by the New Development Bank (NDB), aims to interconnect national payment platforms so that goods can be settled directly in, say, rupees for goods from Brazil, or yuans for contracts with China. Climate justice and the Green South Climate change was another urgent focus, especially with Brazil hosting the upcoming COP30 climate conference. The BRICS ministers used Rio to outline a 'climate geopolitics' agenda grounded in justice and development. They insisted that environmental policy cannot be separated from social welfare. Another key demand was massive climate financing. BRICS leaders noted developed countries had pledged US$100 billion per year by 2020, but actual flows remain far below need. They cited data showing climate finance requirements have soared to about $1.3 trillion (due to worsening impacts), while only a fraction of that is funded. As Ethiopia's ambassador warned in Rio, the 2030 development goals were way off track, and 'only about 17% of the goals are on track'. His plea was blunt: rich countries caused the bulk of emissions since the Industrial Revolution, yet poor nations bear the worst consequences. The bloc cast climate change as a development and justice issue, not just an environmental problem. It demands that wealthier nations deliver on past commitments and scale them up dramatically. Looming behind all the summit talk was a critique of the existing financial order – in essence, an indictment of the Western-led model of capitalism. BRICS leaders and allied thinkers pointed out how that model has pitted developing countries on the losing end of debt, austerity and austerity. For many in the Global South, today's 'free market' prescriptions have brought crisis after crisis. Moreover, IMF and World Bank have compounded a 'polycrisis' of hunger, climate, and debt by imposing punitive conditions and surcharges on vulnerable countries. For example, the IMF's insistence on cutting subsidies or raising interest rates forced Egypt to quadruple bread prices, sparking unrest, even as the IMF simultaneously imposed 'junk fees' (surcharges) that extra-burdened already cash-strapped governments. The numbers are stark. Debt justice advocates note that over half of the world's poorest countries are now in debt crisis. Since 2013 the number of Global South nations on the verge of default has more than doubled. As of 2022, 54 countries were classified as facing unsustainable debt burdens. In these countries, interest payments are crowding out everything else, Recent research finds they now spend five times more on repaying creditors than on climate adaptation and resilience. In other words, money that could build hospitals or flood defence is siphoned off to foreign banks and bondholders. For instance, Pakistan, hit by devastating floods in 2022, was forced to divert billions from reconstruction to service external debt even as development benchmarks languished Tariffs and limits of coercion On the other, just as the declaration landed with a thud, US President Donald Trump, in a characteristically forceful social media post on 7 July 2025, declared, 'Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' On the same day, Trump dispatched his infamous tariff letters, thinly veiled as diplomatic overtures but steeped in unilateral belligerence as the outlines of a broader geopolitical reordering became visible. The letters, which rationalised arbitrary tariff hikes under the guise of 'reciprocity,' were less about trade and more about a desperate assertion of imperial prerogative. However, beneath the surface ran the unmistakable traces of failed coercion, faltering hegemony and the paranoid anxiety that BRICS was no longer merely an acronym, but a nascent counter-power. The breakdown of negotiations over the preceding three months exposed the fraying limits of American economic statecraft. The old instruments of leverage such as sanctions, tariffs and financial blackmail appeared to have fatigue, not fear. Trump's pivot from suspension to escalation in the China tariff war revealed a strategic cul-de-sac. Plagued by its own contradictions and upsetting its own allies, the administration alienated long-time partners while inadvertently catalysing an emerging geopolitical bloc rooted in the shared experience of imperial exclusion. The BRICS summit in Brazil unfolded against this backdrop. No longer the butt of Western punditry, the bloc has matured into a platform with infrastructural and political density. Ten full members, dozens of interested observers, and over fifty states engaged in formal and informal dialogue suggest a layered institutional emergence, rather than mere rhetorical alignment. Measured by purchasing power, BRICS economies account for nearly half of global GDP and over half of the global population. Their economic trajectories increasingly set the pace for global growth. The states also command vast shares of industrial production, energy reserves, agricultural capacity and critical minerals, locating them within the core of the material reproduction processes on which global stability depends. As the financial capital in the West remains long decoupled from productive investment, BRICS economies remain anchored in physical output and strategic sectors, grounded in systemic exchange value and deriving strength from infrastructure, energy and commodities rather than speculative cycles. The key difference is that energy in these economies is not a volatile asset class, but a prerequisite for sovereign development. Russia, Iran, Brazil, the UAE and Saudi Arabia dominate fossil fuel markets, while China leads in renewables and storage technologies. These capacities form the base of coordinated state-led planning. Unlike the credit-driven economies of the North Atlantic, where returns are chased through stock buybacks and asset bubbles, BRICS states engage in long-term provisioning. Economic derangement In the United States, financialisation has advanced to the point of economic derangement. Productive sectors have been hollowed out. Industrial investment lags behind speculative flows. Shareholder returns dictate policy. Decades of offshoring and deindustrialisation have produced sharp internal polarisation: real wages stagnate, infrastructure decays, and essential services become unaffordable for large sections of the population. On the global stage, the dollar functions less as a stabilising currency than as a mechanism of control. Washington's reliance on financial warfare – via sanctions, reserve freezes, and regulatory overreach –has exposed the fragility of this model. As volatility is offloaded onto the Global South, states have begun to seek institutional and monetary alternatives. However, the desire to delink is not ideological but comes from the structural asymmetries imposed by dollar dependency. Meanwhile, Europe grapples with its own, increasingly intertwined crises. The break from Russian energy has frayed the continent's industrial core. Politically, Europe appears unmoored. It invokes strategic autonomy while subordinating security policy to NATO. It speaks the language of multilateralism while confiscating foreign assets, invoking liberal peace while escalating militarisation and even remains silent as genocide and economic exploitations wreak havoc with its leadership staggeringly beholden to the US security umbrella. However, analysts note this is not a tactical misstep but a deeper crisis of orientation, with competing imperatives pulling the project apart. The intensification of Western hostility toward BRICS must be situated within this broader geopolitical fatigue. The confrontations are not limited to foreign policy disputes but reflect a deeper structural unease. Russia's assertion of resource sovereignty, Iran's defiance of financial blackmail and China's infrastructural ascendancy all constitute affronts to a global order increasingly unable to reproduce itself on its own terms. States that refuse to act as auxiliaries are subjected to diplomatic pressure and narrative containment. The postwar liberal consensus and its unipolar afterglow are no longer capable of securing ideological consent. Inflation, ecological crisis, inequality, and institutional fragmentation are not imported shocks; they are endogenous to the prevailing model. The externalisation of blame through sanctions and military build-ups only hastens systemic fragmentation. The BRICS configuration does not emerge from vacuum. It arises from decades of structural adjustment, resource plunder and financial dependency. Its institutional evolution – through the NDB, cross-border payment systems and currency swaps – offers both protective infrastructure and a set of alternatives. Similarly, local currency trade, infrastructure investment without neoliberal conditionalities and policy coordination on energy and technology signal a concerted attempt to reclaim developmental sovereignty. Countries across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia increasingly view BRICS+ as a strategic space to exit from the permanent austerity logic of Bretton Woods institutions. China, in this configuration, operates not as an imperial centre but as a strategic fulcrum. Its approach remains focused on connectivity, logistics and planning capacity. However, it is important to steer clear of the old post-Cold War shallow binaries: the 'authoritarian countries' in the BRICS are intending a reversal of globalisation but calling for a redirection. With their emphasis on real economy coordination, development financing and institutional redundancy, they are preparing for strategic insulation, not isolation. The bloc reflects a wider historical motion: a world disenchanted with liberal finance and searching for new instruments of survival and cooperation. The South is no longer a passive recipient in a preordained order. The architecture being assembled across BRICS states is uneven, unfinished and fraught, but undeniably real. The West can interpret this shift as a threat or a mirror. However, the historical momentum no longer centres on its crises. It centres elsewhere – in the slow, stubborn accumulation of material capacity outside the imperial core.
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
At Least 20 killed, including child, in Israeli strikes on Gaza
A view of the site of Israeli strike that damaged and destroyed residential buildings, at Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in Gaza City on July 4, 2025. Photo Reuters At least 20 Palestinians, including a child and a woman, were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday, according to local media and health officials. In Gaza City's Sabra neighbourhood, a child was killed in a strike on the Al Daya family home, Al Jazeera reported. A separate attack in the same area killed a woman and wounded three others. Elsewhere, at least 10 people were reported killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat in central Gaza. Three more died in attacks on al-Mawasi, while five were killed in western Gaza City. Family of slain US citizen in West Bank urges US-led probe The family of Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old US citizen killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, is calling on Washington to launch an independent investigation and hold those responsible to account. Musallet, known as Saif, was reportedly surrounded and beaten for three hours during an assault on Friday, according to a family statement. The attackers also allegedly targeted medics attempting to reach him. 'This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,' the family said. They described Saif as a kind and hardworking young man from Florida who had been striving to build a better future. 'We demand that the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice,' the statement added. Rights group urges prosecution of Trump over Gaza aid killings The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has called for US President Donald Trump to be prosecuted for alleged complicity in genocide over his support for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) aid distribution model. In a statement on X (formerly known as twitter), the Geneva-based group urged international legal bodies to hold Trump accountable for backing the GHF, where Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians at aid collection points in recent weeks. Euro-Med calls for prosecution of Trump and immediate shutdown of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over massacres at aid points — Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) July 12, 2025 The group said field testimony pointed to the presence of private US security contractors working alongside Israeli forces during some of the fatal incidents. It also accused Trump's administration of offering Israel broad military, financial, political and diplomatic support during its ongoing war in Gaza.
Business Recorder
3 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill at least 27
GAZA CITY: Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 27 Palestinians, including six near a water distribution point. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight people 'including children and women' and wounding others. An Israeli air strike hit a family home near Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in '10 martyrs and several injured', Bassal said. Another strike 'hit a potable water distribution point… in an area for displaced people west of the Nuseirat camp', Bassal added, reporting 'six martyrs and several injured'. Gaza civil defence says 52 killed by Israeli forces In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack. The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.
