(30 Mar 2006)
1. Passing out parade at Pakistan Air Force Academy
2. Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan Saleem Hyat salutes cadets
3. Air Force Personnel on parade
4. Various of spectators
5. Close up of female pilot Nadia Gul
6. General Ahsan Saleem Hyat presents 'Wings' to graduating women pilots
7. Fly-by of T-37 jet trainers in which female pilots have qualified to fly
8. Wide of General Hyat speech
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, Vice Chief of Army Staff
"If Pakistan is to rise to the heights that it deserves and is to be in line with the vision of the founding father, Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, both men and women of our beloved land must find equal space and opportunity."
10. Various of female pilots in T-37 jet trainer
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Flying Officer Nadia Gul, Pakistan Air Force pilot
"Yes I want to fly fighter jets and I want to prove that the girls also can do equally well and they can also serve our country in the best possible manner as the males are doing."
12. Low angle group of four women pilots who were awarded their 'Wings'
13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mariam Khalil, Flying Officer
"(This proves ) that if given opportunity anybody, any of the citizens of Pakistan can do anything, given the opportunity nobody is less than anyone."
14. Group of four women pilots smiling with their instructors
STORYLINE:
Pakistan welcomed the first four female pilots into its air force at a grand parade at the nation's elite air academy on Thursday.
Pakistan's military had been an all-male bastion.
But amongst those being granted their "wings" on Thursday by the Islamic nation's No. 2 general, Ahsan Saleem Hyat, were Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool.
They are among 36 aviation cadets who successfully completed three and a half years of intensive training.
General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, vice chief of army staff, hailed the female officers as a tribute to the air force's elite training academy in the northwestern town of Risalpur.
"If Pakistan is to rise to the height that it deserves both men and women of our beloved land must find equal space and opportunity," he said.
The women paraded before hundreds of family members and diplomats, and took the military oath.
"If given the opportunity anybody, any of the citizens of Pakistan can do anything," pilot Mariam Khalil said.
The four women are the first female pilots in the 58-year-history of the Pakistan air force.
They trained in MFI-17 Super Mushfhak and T-37 jets, and depending on their abilities and the needs of the air force could go on to fly fighter jets.
About five percent of Pakistan's air force officers are women, mostly serving in areas like engineering, medicine, air traffic control and administration.
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