Rear Admiral (retd) Ejaz Husain said that Hasnain had to literally fight with the army for the land. “At the time of partition, the navy only had three engineers - no money, tables or chairs,” said a frail looking Hasnain at the launch of his memoir, ‘Odyssey of a Sailor’, on Thursday. “PNS Karsaz was based in Manora and this piece of land was crawling with snakes. The idea behind PNS Karsaz was to train technical manpower.
While speaking at PNS Karsaz, Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Muhammad Asif Sandila said that although he was not a fast reader, he managed to read the memoir in five days. He added that Hasnain’s memoirs were based on the trials and tribulations faced by the navy after partition. “It talks about a time when everyone in the country loved to work together,” said Sandila. “He must have kept a lot of diaries because he has even shared details of the navy ships.”
Hasnain is known as a naval legend as he was the first commanding officer at PNS Karsaz. He also served with the Royal India Navy and the Merchant Navy.
Rear Admiral (retd) Mian Zahir Shah said that the book also talked about British naval officers and what they did before partition. Shah added that Hasnain also worked as the director-general and chairman of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT). “Managing the KPT was a completely different experience for Hasnain, given the labour union problems,” he said. “There was a time when the KPT union was forcing him to bow out but he did not budge.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2011.
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When reading about these great people who lived in what we call Pakistan I cannot but recall two couplets from Nasir:
Woh aatey aatey subh reh gayee kahaN Woh Raasta dikhaney waale kya huay?
Yeh app hum to boojh hain zameen ka ZameeN ka boojh uthaney waale kya huay?
@Parvez: this book is published by SAMA publisher and editorial and of RS 975
It would have been nice if you had mentioned the publishers name, the price and availability of the book.