Odyssey of a sailor: First commanding officer of PNS Karsaz launches memoir

Hasnain has served with the Royal Indian Navy, Merchant Navy and Pakistan Navy.

KARACHI: A handful of people are aware of the fact that if it were not for Rear Admiral (retd) Syed Zahid Hasnain, PNS Karsaz would not exist. He practically built it from scratch and helped the Pakistan Navy acquire land for PNS Bahadur and PNS Raza.

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 25^th, 2011.