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Pakistan Navy frigate Shamsheer 252 docks at Port Sudan, in the Red Sea. Pakistan's new Navy chief said he wants to improve the service's operational capabilities. (ASHRAF SHAZLY/ / AFP)
ISLAMABAD — Adm. Muhammad Zakaullah, the new head of Pakistan’s Navy who took office on Tuesday, is viewed as a highly experienced officer who will have to focus on base security and improving Pakistan’s submarine force.
Zakaullah, the serving deputy chief of the Naval Staff, followed Adm. Muhammad Asif Sandila, who retired after completing his three-year term, which began in October 2011.
On assuming office Zakaullah said, “In all areas of Pakistan’s Navy, development and merit will be first priorities,” adding that he would strive to improve the Navy’s operational capabilities.
According to the Navy’s media branch, Zakaullah joined the Navy in 1975 and was commissioned as an officer in 1978.
His operational commands include that of a destroyer and the command of the 25th Destroyer Squadron. He was also commandant, Pakistan Naval Academy, commander Pakistan Fleet, and took command of the Multinational Maritime Task Force “Combined Task Force 150,” combating illegal activity in the Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean region to the Horn of Africa.
He attended Royal Naval Staff College in the UK and National Defence University Islamabad.
Analyst, author and former Australian defense attache to Islamabad, Brian Cloughley, says Zakaullah is a safe pair of hands on the tiller who is likely to focus on matters such as the long-delayed efforts to modernize and expand Pakistan’s submarine flotilla.
“So far as I can gather he will not make any waves politically, although he is bound to fight strongly for an increase to the submarine fleet,” he said.
“He is especially interested in development of young officers and seamen and can be expected to concentrate on that too. So, no great changes, but another officer who is well-suited to his important appointment and can be expected to do his best for the Navy.”
Nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, Claude Rakisits, says Zakaullah will have to improve security and further develop the sea-based arm of Pakistan’s nuclear triad.
“He will need to seriously tighten the security of the naval facilities in Karachi so as to prevent another terrorist attack on its facilities such as the ones that took place in May 2011 and more recently in September of this year. While the latter one was foiled, the previous one caused much damage, including the destruction of 2 P-3C Orion maritime surveillance planes,” he said.
“Tightening security will also mean implementing tighter security checks on the naval personnel because it is difficult to believe that the May 2011 attack could have been done without inside assistance,” he added.
Regarding the sea-based arm of the nuclear deterrent, Rakisits says, “If Pakistan were able to develop such a missile capability, deployed either on a warship or on one of its diesel-powered submarines, this would effectively give Islamabad a second-strike nuclear capability,” he said.
He says this “would completely change the nuclear equation between the only two nuclear-armed states of South Asia.”
Though he is uncertain if Pakistan has the ability to develop small enough warheads to fit in a sea-based weapon, he says Washington would be concerned at such a move.
“The real worry for Washington would be the safety of such sea-based nuclear weapons given that, as opposed to land-based weapons, the nuclear warhead would not be separated from the launcher. And given the numerous terrorists threats Pakistan is presently under, this is a very legitimate concern.”■
Base Security, Sub Fleet Improvement Among Challenges for Pakistan's New Navy Chief | Defense News | defensenews.com
