Capt. Fazaluddin Haqqi as PIA Boeing 747-200B commander.
Fazaluddin Haqqi, a recently retired Boeing 747 PIA captain with 18,000 flying hours to his credit and a career spanning four decades on all types of aircraft currently in PIA service, was one of the shining stars during his long and illustrious years with the airline.
Fazal emigrated with his parents and nine siblings during the 1947 partition from India. His was one of those families that left all their worldly possessions in that country to move to the fledgling Pakistan. With a recently retired and infirm father as well as the rest of the very young family to care for, Fazal with his characteristic determination took up a job with a city bank as a clerk and to supplement his income, also sold home made pakoras in the market, after work, to feed his large family.
Not yet a matriculate he realised the importance of a formal education and studied at night under a street lamp setting an example for his young brothers and sisters, not yet teenagers. With iron determination and his eyes firmly focused on the ultimate goal of one day becoming a pilot, he saved sufficiently to fund that dream. Taking up various employments as an aircraft technician at the PIA overhaul workshop in Karachi and as a flight dispatcher he toiled laboriously. Now a father of two young daughters he passed all the required exams along the path to becoming a pilot, obtaining his wings in 1964.
Fazal progressed steadily through the maze of different aircraft types as first officer. He took up his first command of Fokker F27 Friendship in 1968 progressing now as captain through all aircraft types until his retirement in 1996 as captain of Boeing 747 Jumbo. He now lives a comfortable and quiet retired life with his family in Karachi. His eldest son Rehan Fazal another PIA pilot has already progressed through three aircraft types thus setting a standard of the Haqqi family legacy within PIA.
Thank you Aizaz Moin for sharing photo & information.
