Khan earlier had won his case in the Services Tribunal, which ordered his reinstatement as General Manager Sports PIA, but the army put its foot down and ordered, in clear violation of rules, not to let him back on the job. To save face, PIA has gone into appeal against the Services Tribunal judgment.

The previous chairman of PIA, retired Lt Gen Haq Nawaz, was known to be keen to bring in as many army officers as he could into PIA in an attempt to turn the country's second largest corporation around. In the process Jahangir Khan was sacked from the job without fulfilling any legal requirement.

To rub salt into Jahangir's wounds, he has been replaced as general manager of sports at PIA by a retired colonel, Muddasar Asghar, who had an ignominious stint as secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation, and who only played hockey only once for his country, coming on as a substitute for two-and-a-half minutes. The pips on his shoulder are widely believed to be the reason that Asghar got the job.

Since Jahangir was sacked arbitrarily and without meeting any legal requirement, Services Tribunal restored him on service. As per rules any decision given by ST has to implemented by the concerned authority within 60 days. When Jahangir Khan went to join his job he was refused
by the management. After 60 days of Services Tribunal judgment, PIA has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, dragging the sports hero into legal complications.

The only reason for his removal from job was stated by PIA as “he has left with no commercial value for PIA”. Jahangir Khan met with General Pervez Musharraf and requested reinstatement, but to no use.

Suffering from a double hernia in childhood, Khan strived against many odds to stamp his claim as squash's most successful and dominating player since the sport was first introduced at Harrow school in England in 1830. At the age of 14 he won the first of three World Amateur titles and in 1981, aged 17, he won the World Open title. He went on to win this title five more times (1982-1985, 1988), as well as winning the blue-ribbon British Open 10 times in a row.

Jahangir - whose name means conqueror of the world - hails from a dynasty of squash players who have dominated the sport for many decades, including his father Roshan, uncles Hashim and Mohibullah Khan. At the height of his career, for a five-and-a-half year period, he was undefeated in hundreds of first-class games, maintaining a level of fitness that took Herculean effort and rigid discipline to maintain. He also won the US Open hardball championship. He retired
from squash in 1993 after helping Pakistan win the World Team Championship in Karachi.

"I should also have left Pakistan, like Hashim Khan [seven times British Open champion), Azam Khan [four times British Open champion], Rehmat Khan and others who are living abroad and who still earn a lot of respect and honor, as well as make money," Jahangir told this correspondent.

Despite having highly attractive offers from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Sultan of Brunei, a personal friend and fan, Khan preferred to stay in Pakistan to help boost Pakistan's image through his world-wide popularity. For this, he accepted a very modest package worth about US$1,200 a month from PIA.

He has also in the past turned down attractive offers to coach in France, England and Australia, preferring to pass on his expertise to the youngsters of his country. But Pakistan's military decision-makers insist that for cost-cutting reasons Khan's sacking from the state-owned airline was inevitable, and that his publicity and commercial value was negligible as he no longer plays squash. Some argument to treat a legend.

In fact, it is a failure on the part of PIA not to be able to translate Khan's undoubted popularity and respect into something of value to them and the country. Khan is regularly invited to high-profile events in other countries, and two years ago he was the chief guest at the British Open squash championships.