Shahid Lateef

Air Marshal Shahid Lateef (Urdu: شاہد لطیف;HI(m), SI(m), Sbt), is a retired three-star rank air marshal in the Pakistan Air Force, former aerial strategist, and television personality. Commissioned in April, 1974 in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), he completed an academic degree with top honours, and was awarded the Sword of Honour from the PAF Academy, Risalpur. Lateef has performed duties as a fighter pilot in various squadrons of the PAF and was among the founders of the F-16 induction programme in the PAF.

Air Force career
Shahid Lateef attached to Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in September, 1971 and he was authorized in April, 1974. In PAF Academy, he completed with top honors, and was awarded the coveted 'Sword of Honor'. Due to his excellent performance on the Chinese F-6 aircraft, he converted on to the French Mirage at an early stage of his career.

He was chosen in the group of the first six PAF Pilots to undergo F-16 conversion in the United States. Latif was the first pilot to ferry the F-16 from USA to Pakistan in 1982, and formed part of the pioneer team for training pilots in Pakistan on the F-16 weapon system. With these same pilots he flew numerous combat missions in defense of Pakistan during the Afghan war in the 1980s. He was sent to the United Arab Emirates where he was assigned the command of a Mirage squadron. He was then chosen to command a fighter squadron, fighter wing and a fighter base in the PAF. He has had numerous key staff appointments at the Air Headquarters including the JF-17 Project. He was to actively encouraged to the rank of Air vice Marshal, and was given the JF-17 Project; a programme that was not able to start due to strange difficulties, forcing the PAF to continue to operate obsolete equipment. Through his efforts, the JF-17 was picked up from the drawing board and finally flew. He served the Air Force Of Pakistan from September, 1971 to April, 2006. In recognition of his services he was awarded the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Sitara-i-Basalat.

Defense Analyst
After retirement from the PAF Lateef started a new career as a defense analyst and appeared on a number of talk shows and gave his expert opinion on Current Affairs.