Admiral Saeed Mohammad Khan NI(M)

SBt sbt is an open-source build tool for Scala and Java projects, similar to Apache's Maven and Gradle. Its main features are: *Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks *Continuous compilation, te ...

(1 October 1935 – 4 December 2022), was a

Pakistan Navy ur, ہمارے لیے اللّٰہ کافی ہے اور وہ بہترین کارساز ہے۔ English: Allah is Sufficient for us - and what an excellent (reliable) Trustee (of affairs) is He!(''Qur'an, 3:173'') , type ...

officer who served as the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) of the Pakistan Navy from 9 November 1991 until retiring from his military service on 9 November 1994. After his retirement, he briefly served as the Pakistan Ambassador to the Netherlands, having been appointed by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 ...

in the 1990s.

Biography

Naval career

Saeed Mohammad Khan was born on 1 October 1935 in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His family

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

following the partition of India in 1947, and settled in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former ...

, Pakistan. In 1954, he was commissioned as

Midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Af ...

in the Operations Branch of the

and was sent to the United Kingdom to be trained at as a navigation specialist. Upon his return in 1958, he was promoted as

sub-lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is usually a junior officer rank, used in armies, navies and air forces. In most armies, sub-lieutenant is the lowest officer rank. However, in Brazil, it is the highest non-commissioned rank, and in Spain, it is the second hig ...

in the Navy and served aboard PNS ''Tariq'' in gunnery. In the 1960s, he was the

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latit ...

of PNS ''Tariq'' and participated in the second war with India in 1965 and then in the third war with India in 1971 as an

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieg ...

specialist and earned a nickname "Beast of the Sea" by his superiors.

Staff appointments and Chief of naval staff

His career in the Navy progressed well and was the Flag Officer Sea Training of

from 1980–84 as

rear-admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star " admiral" rank. It is often regar ...

. In 1984, Vice-Admiral Khan was appointed Commander of Pakistan Fleet (COMPAK) and eventually appointed Vice Chief of Naval Staff (VCNS) under Admiral Yastur-ul-Haq Malik, the Chief of Naval Staff. As VCNS, Vice-Admiral Khan was responsible for the naval warfare exercise and command structure of the Navy. After the death and state funeral of President Zia-ul-Haq, Vice-Admiral Khan supported then-

Chief of Army Staff Chief of Army Staff or Chief of the Army Staff which is generally abbreviated as COAS is a title commonly used for the appointment held by the most senior staff officer or the chief commander in several nations' armies. * Chief of Army (Australia ...

General

Mirza Aslam Beg General Mirza Aslam Beg ( ur, ; born 2 August 1931), also known as M. A. Beg, was a Pakistan Army officer, who served as the 3rd Chief of Army Staff from 1988 until his retirement in 1991. His appointment as chief of army staff came when his ...

's decision for holding the

general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

that saw the electoral victory of

and the

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

to form the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

. Vice-Admiral Khan was later appointed chairman of

Pakistan National Shipping Corporation The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) is a Pakistani national flag carrier and is one of Government of Pakistan's most profitable state-owned entities, most recently having recorded its highest ever profit of PKR 5.6 billion under the ...

(PNSC) which he led from 11 November 1988 until 13 December 1990. Vice-Admiral Khan was promoted to four-star rank on 11 August 1991 by

Benazir Bhutto. However, he was elevated as the Chief of Naval Staff when Admiral Malik left the command to him on 8 November 1991. It was during his stint as naval chief when the

Pressler amendment Pressler (or Preßler) () is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Johann Valentin Pressler - German ancestor of Elvis Presley who changed his name to Presley during the American Civil War * Kimberly Pressler (born 1977), Ame ...

came in effect that ultimately led to the military embargo on Pakistan and Navy lost eight of his surface ships that were to be returned to the United States in the 1990s. However, he successfully negotiated with

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

First Sea Lord The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS) is the military head of the Royal Navy and Naval Service of the United Kingdom. The First Sea Lord is usually the highest ranking and most senior admiral to serve in the British Armed F ...

Julian Oswald Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Julian Robertson Oswald (11 August 1933 – 19 July 2011) was a senior Royal Navy officer. After training as a gunnery specialist, Oswald commanded a frigate and then a destroyer before achieving higher command in t ...

who helped him close a deal with the

British government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

to sell the fleet of

Type 21 frigate The Type 21 frigate, or ''Amazon''-class frigate, was a British Royal Navy general-purpose escort that was designed in the late 1960s, built in the 1970s and served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s. Development In the mid-1960s, the Royal Na ...

s to Pakistan. This eventually resulted in commissioning the s in the 1990s. In an interview with ''Times Now'' an Urdu-language political correspondent, he ultimately warned of

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

's expansion into the blue-water navy in order to establish the "

Greater India Greater India, or the Indian cultural sphere, is an area composed of many countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct indigenous cultures ...

." In 1994, Admiral Khan is said to have recommended against acquiring the designs and development of the ''Agosta 90Bravo''-class submarines in coordination with France over the British ''Upholder''-class submarine. His recommendations were bypassed by the government and the ''Agosta 90B''-class submarines were acquired and built in successive long years.

Ambassadorship and retirement

On 9 November 1994, Admiral Khan handed over the command to Admiral

Mansurul Haq Admiral (Pakistan), Admiral Mansurul Haq ( ur, ; 16 October 1937 – 21 February 2018) was a senior officer of the Pakistan Navy who was forcibly retired from his service in 1997 on the allegations leveled against him in the Karachi affair, ...

who was tenuring as the chairman of PNSC who was appointed by the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. After retirement from his military service, Admiral Saeed Khan was appointed the Pakistan Ambassador to the Netherlands where he tenured for four years before returning to Pakistan. Khan died on 4 December 2022, at the age of 87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Saeed Mohammad 1935 births 2022 deaths People from Bhopal Muhajir people Pakistan Military Academy alumni Pakistani military personnel of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Chiefs of Naval Staff (Pakistan) Pakistan Navy admirals Ambassadors of Pakistan to the Netherlands