On January 7th the students accompanied by faculty members of DSS department visited the Naval Headquarters, Islamabad, where they were briefed on Pakistan Navy: Roles, Functions and Organisation by, Captain Zulfiqar. He apprised the students and faculty about the role played by Pak Navy in contemporary geostrategic environment. The challenges posed by interdependence, post 9/11 altered security environment, increased maritime operations, asymmetric transnational threats, regional maritime environment and Pak navy’s collaboration with international navies and various Task forces operating in the territorial and blue waters.
Given the strategic dynamics of the country, navy has a very important role to play, whether as an auxiliary to the land dominated security doctrine, or more so independently. For a nuclear weapon state, navy provides the critical second strike capability and has an outreach potential, which the other forces do not contain. Captain Zulfiqar also talked about the diplomacy and outreach of Pak navy through its various port calls and very proactive assistance in tsunami, and 2010 floods in the country, as well as its rescue and rehabilitation activities. The challenges faced by the navy are multipronged, both in the traditional realm, with regards India, and non-traditional and newly emerging issues, such as piracy, non state actors’ activities in the coastal waters, smuggling, trafficking and threats possibly posed by other foreign presence, besides the protection of vital sea lanes. He also touched upon the various subsidiaries of the navy and their work function.
The visit concluded over an exchange of mementos by both the organizations. From DSS side, Prof. Jamil Raza presented the university crest to Commodore Asif, who reciprocated in kind.