1. Zafar Ahmad Chaudhry was a Pakistani former airline executive, three-star rank officer, and human rights activist who served as the first Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force, appointed by President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972 and resigned in 1974.
Zafar Ahmad Chaudhry was born in Sialkot, Punjab, British India on 19 August 1926 to an Arain family belonging to the Ahmadiyya Movement.
Zafar Chaudhry enrolled at the Punjab University in Lahore, and graduated with bachelor's degree in 1944, and then joined the Royal Indian Air Force.
In 1945, Chaudhry was commissioned in the Royal Indian Air Force as a pilot officer, and was inducted in No 7 Squadron in 1946.
Zafar Chaudhry was further educated at the RAF Staff College in Andover, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom before being directed to attend the Joint Service Defence College of the British Army.
Zafar Chaudhry later secured his qualification from the Imperial Defence College before returning to Pakistan.
In 1965, Air Commodore Zafar Chaudhry served in the Air Headquarters as a Director Air Operations, taking responsibility for planning combat aerial operations against the Indian Air Force during the second war with India.
In 1969, Zafar Chaudhry was appointed station commander of the PAF Station Sargodha.
In 1971, Air Vice-Marshal Zafar Chaudhry was sent on secondment and was appointed managing director of the Pakistan International Airlines, which he directed until 1972.
On 3 April 1972, Air Marshal Zafar Chaudhry was appointed first Chief of Air Staff and took over the command of the Pakistan Air Force.
Zafar Chaudhry was the last air marshal to command the Air Force, and was succeeded by Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the air force's first four-star rank officer.
On 17 December 2019, Zafar Chaudhry died of cardiac arrest, aged 93, in Lahore, Pakistan.