His death has been subject of numerous conspiracy theories, with many American authors charging him of having advanced knowledge on terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.

[4] Mushaf Ali Mir was born in Lahore, Punjab in British India on 5 March 1947.: 11 [6] He hailed from the lower middle class family and was of Kashmiri descent, that practiced the Shia'a principles of Islam.

[13] In 1994–95, Air-Commodore Mir, as an ACAS (Plans) at Air AHQ, visited Poland to hold discussions to acquire the Russian Su-27 Flanker but returned since the aircraft was not available.

: 97–98 [14] In 1996, Air Vice Marshal Mir was appointed as Project-Director of Project Falcon that was started to negotiate with Turkey and Jordan to acquire F-16As/Bs.

[9] In 2000, ACM PQ Mehdi's retirement was confirmed by President Rafiq Tarar, and the Pakistan MoD sent potentials list of three-star air officers for the promotion of the four-star rank.

[3] The surprise promotion and command appointment was said to be at the behest of special and personal requests made by then-Chairman Joint chiefs Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

[3][15] This appointment was one of the center of controversies in the Musharraf administration when superseding air officers had sparked off "rumblings of resentment" at the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) in the country.

[25] The Air Force Flight Safety and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) ruled out the "act of sabotage" and termed the incident as an accident.

[21] Additional inquiries in 2015 resulted by the air force and civilian investigations, the Government declared the aircraft as faulty, not an act of sabotage.

[26] Further military insights revealed at the parliamentary committee noted that the aircraft was in fact faulty, as it was first identified as such by the Navy's inspection team as early as 1993.

"[13] Since the plane crash in 2003, Air Chief Marshal Mir's death has attracted significant amount of attention and has been subject of conspiracy theories in media and literature.

[29] According to Gerald Posner, an American journalist, Mir's death in a plane crash was not an accident but an act of sabotage, which he claimed in his book: Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 911, written in 2003.: 105–194 [28] Several American authors of counterterrorism studies have suspected him of having advanced intelligence knowledge on the planning of the terrorist attacks in the United States by al-Qaeda, during his time when Mir was serving in the ISI as its spymaster.: 269 [4]: contents [30]: conts.

[31]: contents [29] Subsequently, Posner and his American colleagues have claimed that Osama bin Laden and other Afghan Arabs had struck a deal with Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) through Mir in 1996 to get protection, arms, and supplies for Al-Qaeda.

[29] Prince Turki bin Faisal, on the other hand, was removed as intelligence chief and sent as Ambassador to United Kingdom during the same time.

[32] In 2015, the Air Force's Flight Inquiry Board and the CAA dismissed the claims of sabotage when they submitted their year long investigation reports to the Public Accounts Committee of the Pakistan Parliament, citing the poor maintenance of the aircraft.