Pakistan’s first female pilot Shukriya Khanum dies at 82

LAHORE - Pakistan’s first female commercial pilot Shukriya Khanum passed away in Lahore on Sunday. She was 82.

Khanum breathed her last at a hospital in the Punjab capital city years after a protracted illness, according to her family.

On July 12th 1959, Shukriya Khanum rewrote history when she was granted a commercial pilot license (CPL) and thus became the 1st female pilot of Pakistan. However she did not serve the PIA as a pilot.

She was a proposed ground instructor in the PIA flying academy, Karachi Aero Club, where she taught new pilots the CPL ground subjects.

It is, however, not confirmed whether Shukriya Khanum really flew a plane or not or maneuvered a plane as a significant section of the training.