Alam was born on 6 July 1935 to a well-educated family of Calcutta, British India. Born and raised in Bengal, Alam was a fluent Bengali speaker, however his paternal line was of Urdu-speaking Bihari origin; having emigrated from Patna and settled in the Bengal province of British India for a long time. The family migrated from Calcutta to eastern Bengal which became East Pakistan],now Bangladesh] following the formation of Pakistan in 1947. It was in East Pakistan, where Alam completed his secondary education, graduating from the Government High School in Dhaka in 1951. He joined the then RPAF in 1952, being commissioned on 2 October 1953. Alam's brothers are M. Shahid Alam, an economist and a professor at Northeastern University, and M. Sajjad Alam, a particle physicist at SUNY Albany. His family moved to Pakistan in 1971,. Being the eldest of his 11 siblings, Alam did not marry as he had to assume the responsibilities of the upbringing of his family. Some of his younger brothers became distinguished in various academic careers.
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Alam scored an "ace in a day" on 7 September 1965, with a total of 5 kills. Over an 11 day period, he claimed 9 kills including 2 probables. His actions have placed him at the top of the hall of fame list at the Pakistan Air Force Museum in Karachi, and he is considered a national hero for Pakistan. During the war, he was posted at Sargodha. He was involved in various dogfights while flying his F-86 Sabre fighter, against the Hawker Hunter fighters then flown by the Indian Air Force. According to the PAF, in a single sortie on 7 September 1965, Alam downed five aircraft with four in less than a minute, establishing a world record. Regarding the last four, Alam stated: "Before we had completed more than of about 270 degrees of the turn, at around 12 degrees per second, all four Hunters had been shot down." In 1978, when Alam gave a speech at a Karachi university, he told that during the fight he saw a spiritual force coming from the sky. An incomplete list of Alam's claimed kills includes:
Alam's claim regarding the sortie on 7 September 1965 has been contested by the Indian Air Force, which denied losing five Hawker Hunters on the said day, several mainstream sources including retired PAF Air Commodore Sajad S. Haider, have expressed skepticism about Alam's claim regarding the sortie on 7 September 1965. Also, the fact that no gun camera footage of Alam's kills was ever made public by the Pakistani authorities, casts further doubt on the veracity of Alam's claim. In 1967, Alam was appointed Squadron Commander of the first squadron of Dassault Mirage III fighters procured by the PAF. He retired as Air Commodore.v
Death
The Air Force legend was admitted to Pakistan Naval Station Shifa Hospital in Karachi. Alam died in Karachi on 18 March 2013. He was 77. He was being treated for respiratory problems for 18 months. Alam's funeral prayer was performed at the PAF Base Masroor, where he served some of the significant years of his career. Alam was buried at the Shuhuda Graveyard, located at PAF Masroor Airbase. Air Chief MarshalTahir Rafique Butt, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroz Khan, Sindh corps commander Lt. Gen Ijaz Chaudhry, Pakistan Rangers Director-General Maj. Gen. Rizwan Akhter, Base Commander PAF Base Masroor Air Commodore Usaid ur Rehman, many war veterans of the 1965 war and Alam's closest colleagues attended the funeral. One of the younger brothers of the deceased, Zubair Alam, was also present.
Memorials
, a major road in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan is named in honour of the flying ace of Pakistan Air Force, Air Commodore Muhammad Mahmood Alam, running from Main Market to Gulberg. The road runs parallel to famous Main Boulevard thus providing an alternate route and is a commercial hub with many restaurants, fashion boutiques, shopping malls, beauty saloons and décor stores. M.M. Alam Road hosts a variety of flamboyant restaurants in modern Lahore. On 20 March 2014, on account of his first death anniversary, the PAF Airbase Mianwali was renamed after him as PAF Base M.M. Alam.
