Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed, who served as the chief of air staff between 2006 and 2009, was amused when Dawn talked to him about his image appearing in the Indian government advertisement.
“I do not know what has happened there. Today being Sunday, I was playing a golf match and did not have the time to catch up with news,” he said.
But he was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to those responsible for the mistake.
“It is a clerical and innocent mistake on the part of somebody in the Indian government. It does not mean anything special,” he said.
“Maybe I have got on to the nerves of someone there. Maybe the fact that the Pakistan Air Force went on high alert in 2008 (against India) is still present in the back of somebody’s mind there,” he added.
“But we should not try to see and read too much into it. At the end of the day it is just an innocent mistake.”
He, however, said: “What matters to me more is that I am seen as a hero in my own country. It is the recognition by the people of Pakistan that really counts (for me).”
