Exchange Tour in Pakistan 1969-70 - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

I left Cranwell in the middle of July 1969 and three weeks later I started a 12-month unaccompanied tour as a flying instructor at the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Academy at Risalpur in the North West Frontier Province. I had volunteered for the post and was highly delighted to get it. Before setting off for Pakistan I had to go down to London for a briefing at Adastral House. There I met my predecessor, Peter Gooding who had just completed his time in Pakistan. He had only that morning landed back in UK and was not too pleased at having to come and meet me instead of going straight home.

I flew out to Sharjah in the Gulf on a routine RAF trooping flight and transferred to an RAF Andover of 84 Squadron on a scheduled training flight to Pakistan. The Andover stopped at Karachi International Airport for about 40 minutes to refuel for the leg to Chaklala, the PAF base in Rawalpindi. Because the Andover was on a regular flight with diplomatic clearance, the crew were not required to pass through airport Customs and Immigration. With the benefit of hindsight I should have declared myself to the Pakistani immigration folk but neither I nor the aircraft crew thought of it at the time. I thus became an illegal immigrant to Pakistan!

The last hour of the flight from Karachi was in darkness so I could not see the foothills of the Himalayas as we approached our destination. I was astonished to hear on the aircraft radio that the air temperature at Rawalpindi was 44 degrees Centigrade even at 8pm local time; I simply could not imagine what such a temperature would feel like. It was beautifully cool in the Andover as we taxied in but once the door was opened on the parking apron it felt as though we were climbing down into a furnace. Within seconds my civilian shirt was soaked with sweat.

Rawalpindi was the interim capital of Pakistan in 1969 having taken that status over from Karachi in 1959. The aircraft crew and I were met by a small delegation from the British High Commission headed by the Defence Adviser, Group Captain G B Johns, DSO, DFC, AFC. The aircrew were quickly taken off to a hotel while Group Captain Johns drove me in his splendid, and air-conditioned, official car to his residence in nearby Islamabad.

In 1969 Islamabad, the future capital of Pakistan, was largely an enormous construction site but most of the roads had already been roughly laid out. Group Captain Johns’ residence was a brand-new house of vast proportions located amongst a small number of other diplomats' residences. There was a separate flat attached to the house which was to be my weekend refuge whenever I needed it during my tour of duty.

I quickly learned that British Commonwealth countries have High Commissions while other countries have Embassies. Embassies have military attachés while High Commissions have military advisers. As a military officer on exchange duty with the Pakistan Air Force I continued to wear standard RAF tropical uniform but did not have diplomatic status. However, I soon learned that I was able to import a very small amount of duty free goods via the so-called diplomatic bag. In practice I made very little use of this facility. It was stressed by the Air Adviser that anything I obtained through 'the Bag' was strictly for my own personal use and was never to be handed on to anyone else. I was, therefore, surprised to be asked on a small number of weekend occasions to carry supplies of Chivas Regal whisky from Islamabad to my base at Risalpur for onward delivery to the President of Pakistan. Quiet why His Excellency President Yahya Khan had to resort to this devious way of obtaining his preferred tipple I did not understand and I certainly did not ask!

On the day after my arrival in Pakistan, Group Captain Johns and his wife drove me to Risalpur in his official car. It was a fascinating drive, mainly following the route of the former Grand Trunk Road which a hundred years earlier had been the main highway from Lahore in the Punjab to the border with Afghanistan at the head of the Khyber Pass. Because we were travelling in a car with diplomatic plates, we were obliged to make a lengthy diversion around the town of Wah because there was an arms factory there. (In subsequent months when I sometimes travelled to Rawalpindi alone by public transport or in the car of a Pakistani pilot I was able to pass through Wah without hindrance.)

Eventually we arrived at Attock where a famous bridge crosses the mighty Indus River which runs 2,000 miles (3,200km) all the way from Tibet down to Karachi in the far south of Pakistan. There was much military activity at Attock Bridge which marks the boundary between the Punjab and the North West Frontier Province.

Something I learned later was that it was forbidden at the time, for internal security reasons, to take photographs of any road bridges. This bridge at Nowshera was replaced many years ago so there can be no harm in reproducing it here. Another few miles after  crossing the Kabul River bridge, we reached the Risalpur cantonment and stopped at the Commandant’s residence where I was introduced to Group Captain Mick O’Brien and his family.

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