Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan (Retd)

Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan (Retd) took over as President Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS) on 13 September 2021. After graduating from Government College Faisalabad, he joined PAF and was commissioned in GD (P) Branch of the PAF, in March 1977. After commissioning, he served as a fighter pilot in various frontline fighter squadrons and flew over 3400 hrs on combat and trainer aircraft of PAF. 2

During his service, he remained on various important command and staff appointments. His command assignments included command of a fighter squadron, a fighter wing and an operational PAF airbase. His appointments at Air Headquarters included Additional Director General (ADG) Air Force Strategic Command, Chief Project Director of JF-17 program and Vice Chief of the Air Staff, an appointment he held till his retirement in July 2013. He has also served as Chairman Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Board (PACB) at Kamra. He has been President Ski Federation of Pakistan, on CAA Board and Chairman Monitoring Committee of Islamabad and Multan Airports. The Air Marshal has also served as Pakistan’s Air Attaché at New Delhi, India.

Air Marshal Farhat has qualified various professional courses including Combat Commanders’ Course, Air War Course and National Defence Course. He holds two Master’s degrees, one from the University of Karachi and one in Defence and Strategic Studies from the National Defence University, Islamabad.

He is the co-author of two books “The Aviation City” and “Milestones” about the growth of military aviation industry in Pakistan and its way forward. After retirement from service, given his immense engineering management expertise, he started work on building Pakistan’s Aircraft Manufacturing Industries with a civilian partner in the private sector. He is the sitting Chairman of Scaled Aviation Pvt Ltd, the first and only aircraft manufacturing industry in Pakistan, presently engaged in manufacturing two-seat trainers, and has ventured into designing a purely indigenous six-seat aircraft.

He is a recipient of Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Military), Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) and Sitara-i-Basalat.

Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani (Retd)

Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani has 38 years of bilateral and multilateral experience as a career diplomat, having served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Belgium, Luxemburg and the E.U, and Australia. Ambassador Jilani also served as the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, the top civil service official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A specialist in South Asian affairs, Ambassador Jilani has worked as Director General for South Asia and SAARC, Deputy/Acting High Commissioner to India and Director (India) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2018, the Government of Pakistan nominated Ambassador Jilani as member of the Experts and Eminent Persons Group (EEP) of the ASEAN Regional Forum and later in 2019, as member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs. Most recently, Ambassador Jilani has served as a Senior Fellow at both the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

 

Air Marshal M. Ashfaque Arain (Retd)

Air Marshal (Retd) M Ashfaque Arain is director 'Emerging Technologies, Global Conferences' at Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies Islamabad (CASS). He is a graduate of Combat Commanders’ School, PAF Air War College and National Defence Univeristy. He holds a Master's Degree in Defense & Strategic Studies from Air War College (AWC) and a Master's Degree in War Studies from National Defense University (NDU), Islamabad. In his 41 years of illustrious career as a fighter pilot with Pakistan Air force, the Air Marshal flew various top of the line fighter aircraft with a singular honour of being first PAF pilot to achieve 2000 hours on the F-16 aircraft. During his career, he has served in senior command and staff assignments including command of a fighter squadron, an operational base, Air Adviser Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi, Chief Project director Horizon, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operations), Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Plans), Director General Air force Strategic Command (AFSC), Director General Projects, and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Administration).His specialist areas of research include Emerging Technologies, Global Conferences.  The Air Marshal has been decorated with the distinguished awards of, Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (Military), Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Military), Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) and Sitara-i-Basalat.

Dr. Usman W Chohan

Dr. Usman W. Chohan is an international economist and academic who serves as Director of Economic Affairs and National Development at CASS. He is among the Top 10 Business Authors (out of 12,000 authors) on the Social Science Research Network, which is the largest open repository of knowledge in the world. He has published three books in the past three years: Public Value & Budgeting: International Perspectives, Reimagining Public Managers: Delivering Public Value, and Public Value and the Digital Economy. In the academic realm, his research has been cited widely, as for example in the World Trade Organization, the European Parliament, the National Bureau of Economic Research, IEEE, and the OECD, among many others, and Dr. Chohan has testified before various authorities based on his technical expertise. Dr. Chohan’s forthcoming fourth book is titled Pandemics and Public Value Management

 

Air Vice Marshal Faheem Ullah Malik (Retd)

Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Faheem Ullah Malik is a Director at Centre of Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS) dealing with Warfare & Aerospace, He joined the team of CASS scholars in Feb, 2020; after serving more than 32 years as an active duty Force fighter pilot, retiring as an Air Vice Marshal. A graduate of PAAK, Risalpur in 1987, He holds a Masters in War Studies from the PAF War College and a degree in National Security and War Course from National Defence University. During his career, besides active flying duty in different fighter Sqns on various types of fighter aircraft, plus staff duties at Regional Command / Headquarters; he served for about three years in KSA as Commander of PAF Contingent to Royal Saudi Air Force and almost a year in China. Additionally, he represented PAF at multiple training and professional forums in more than 20 countries in different capacities. He was awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Mily) for his services to the PAF. He has commanded a fighter Squadron, fighter Wing and fighter Base; and his last appointment was Deputy President of prestigious National Defence University, Islamabad. Most recently, he was performing as Advisor to President NDU, before joining CASS. 

Syed Muhammad Ali

Syed Muhammad Ali is a well-known international policy analyst. He has rich experience of high-level multilateral and bilateral negotiations on strategic, nuclear and security issues with the US, China and India. His work on foreign, security, nuclear and energy policies has been published and quoted in world's leading think tanks such as the Brookings Institute, CSIS, IISS and RUSI and prestigious publications including Brookings Arms Control & Non-Proliferation Series, Non-Proliferation Review and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

He has lectured at the world's top policy forums including Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, USA; Brookings Institution, Washington, USA; Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra, Australia; Pugwash Conferences, Italy, IISS, London and Tsinghua University, Beijing. He presented Pakistan’s perspective on energy security before DG IAEA during his Pakistan visit. In addition, he has advised and spoken before Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committees on critical national security issues, drafted several parliamentary resolutions on key foreign and security issues and reviewed the performance of Pakistan’s parliamentary committees. He has authored, edited and co-authored several policy papers, book chapters and books on foreign, security, energy and nuclear policy, strategy and doctrines. He has led, advised, pioneered and served on the board of several think tanks. He also teaches at the National Defence University, Foreign Service Academy, Air War College, Command & Staff College, Quetta and Pakistan Institute of Applied Sciences. He is a frequent analyst on major global and regional affairs on international media including BBC, Voice of America, TRT, Al-Jazeera, Arab News, Press TV, PTV World and several others. Earlier, he has served at PwC, the world's leading consultancy firm and managed Cross Media Ltd, a London-based international media company. He has also served at VOA, Washington and PTV World, Islamabad.

 

Dr Zia Ul Haque Shamsi

Dr Zia Ul Haque Shamsi did his PhD in Strategic Studies from National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad. He has a diverse professional, academic and management experience. Retired from Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Shamsi has lived and experienced the cultures of Australia, South Africa, Qatar, and Pakistan. He has a vast experience of independently conducting research related to contemporary national security, nuclear politics, arms control and disarmament affairs, peace and conflict studies, and strategic management issues. Thinks analytically and generates new ideas to introduce changes in the organization that bring positive and qualitative changes in the working environment as well as the well-being of the personnel. He is skilled in designing courses on National Security, Strategic Studies, Crisis and Conflict Management, Leadership & Management, Hybrid War, and Defense Acquisition Management.

Dr Shamsi has authored a book ‘Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Management Between India and Pakistan’ published by Peter Lang, New York, USA. He has also authored the translation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in Urdu. He regularly writes opinion articles for the Pakistani newspapers, both in English and Urdu, and regularly appears on National TV networks in Current Affairs Programmes.