By Dr. Sohail Ansari
As published in the DAWN today:ON Dec 12, 1949, a DC-3C Dakota of Pak Air Services flying from Lahore to Karachi crashed at Karo Jabal near Jungshahi. All 26 on board perished. Among them was Maj-Gen Muhammad Iftikhar Khan, who was a strong contender for the appointment of the first Pakistani Commander-in-Chief, pegged to succeed Gen Douglas Gracey. Another on board the plane was Brig Sher Khan, Director of Military Operations.Their funeral prayers were held on the grounds of the Frere Hall in Karachi, and the burial was at the Armed Forces Cemetery. There were speculations at the time that the path was cleared for one of the other officers.Regardless of the merit of the speculations, what did happen was that Ayub Khan took over. Was the air crash an act of sabotage? Did that change the course of history? It certainly led to a ban on the airline, following a series of air accidents; four of them. The probable cause was said to be the pilot’s error in terms of navigation and not following the standard procedures
.Dr Sohail AnsariEssex, United Kingdom
12Saad Bashir, Shah Muhammad Vaquas and 10 others3 CommentsLikeComment
Good Old Karachi 
I have never heard of pak air services who
Were they ? PIA was not formed yet as
Far as I know because orient airways
Was doing a merger with them . As far
As pilot error is concerned we don’t know
Because I am not a pilot … look general
Zia ul haq they say was assinated but is
This true because the co pilot was a Shia
Muslim this could be a factor for the crash
Again this is false thirdly the crash has
Been investigated by the US Air Force that
It was mechanical failure which caused
Zia’s hercules to crash and investigation
Also mentioned the Pakistan airforce
Hercules pilot flew to low and could be
Another factor .
This pak air services crash is a copy
Cat disaster as to general Zia ul haq’s
Aircraft .
We do not know exactly wants happened
Only Allah knows the true factors of
Crash and our imam of the time ( imam
Mahdi (as)
Please look at the dates. This is q 1949 incident, not a recent one. Regards
Yes I am aware of that sir .. my
Comment is comparing the 1988 death
Zia ul haq and general Khan in 1949.
Both aircraft was either sabotage or
Mechanical failure or pilot error in the
Case of PAF pilots on herclues had
The tendency of flying to low in the
Investigation by the US Air Force .
In the case of general iftarar death it
Could related to pilot error .