His tenure in command of the Pakistan Air Force is notable for the events involving the short-lived military conflict with the Indian Army in Kargil in 1999.

: 59 [1] Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi was born in Phalia, Punjab, into a Punjabi family on 1 October 1943.: 112 [2] After graduating from a local high school, Mehdi joined the Pakistan Air Force in 1961, and shared a room with subsequent army chief and military dictator Pervez Musharraf and future Pakistan Navy chief Aziz Mirza, who became his lifelong friends.

: 199 [5] In 1965, Pilot Officer Mehdi participated in close air support combat operations during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, where he flew his Sabre against Indian Folland Gnats.

: 105–106 [9] He was flying with a finger-four formation of the ground attack/bomber unit near the town of Garibpur, when his F-86 Sabre was shot down by a Folland Gnat piloted by Fg Off Donald Lazarus[10] of 22 Squadron IAF.

: 231 [11] Upon watching the news, President Yahya Khan imposed the state of emergency and ordered the military for the preparation of war with India on 23 November 1971.: contents [8] According to East Pakistani sources, No.

[19][20] Mehdi did not comment or offer any opinion when Prime Minister Sharif relieved the military commission of then-Chairman Joint chiefs General Jehangir Karamat in 1998.

"[21] Despite the strong urging of the JS HQ, the AHQ issued orders to their commanders to restrict the war efforts, knowing that "cross-border attacks either on the side of the LoC or the international border would invite an immediate response from the Indian Air Force, possibly in the shape of a retaliatory strike against the home base of the intruding fighters–thus starting the first round.

[21] In several meetings, Mehdi objected General Musharraf's grand strategy, pointing out the aftermath of Chengiz Khan, a successful mission of PAF that, however, led the start of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which ended disastrously for Pakistan.

[21] Therefore, Mehdi objected to any direct confrontation[21] but favoured the patrolling missions and remaining silent in support of other officers who gave vital criticism of Musharraf.

[21] His retirement was eventually confirmed when a junior-most air force general was promoted succeed him, leading to speculations that "PQ Mehdi's rather straight-faced and forthright dealings with a somewhat junior-general Pervez Musharraf (although both graduated with same class) particularly during Kargil conflict was a good reason to believe that the general decided to appoint a not-very-senior air chief marshal whom he could order around like one of his Corps Commanders.".