“Prepare against them whatever force you can muster”, as prescribed in the Quran, is a verse that has proved to be a discernible factor shaping Pakistan’s strategic outlook since its earliest times. Moreover, our history has remained an immutable record – something repeatedly reframed through divergent perspectives of our successive generations. However, few historical episodes negate definitive interpretations – and no history has been more written and rewritten than that of the wars between Pakistan and India. Analogously, the same naval engagement of 1965 can elicit two markedly different accounts when examined through Pakistani and Indian historical perspectives. Yet beneath the competing narratives lies the unmistakable history of an institution, the Pakistan Navy – one that was built out of scarcity and has lived for eight decades to prove that it is not the size, but the resolve that matters at sea.

At the time of independence, Pakistan inherited a naval force that was modest in its operational capabilities. Not only that, even the Commonwealth fleets were divided injudiciously between Pakistan and India. Consequently, Pakistan’s share included two sloops, two frigates, four minesweepers, two trawlers and a few harbour defence motor launches, while India walked away with roughly two-thirds of the ships, the better dockyards and the trained personnel. Besides being a fledgling state, consumed by existential crises on every front, the Pakistan Navy was an easy place to put on the back burner; underfunded, undermanned and overshadowed by its........

© Daily Times