Indigenous defence production: Navy inducts first home built frigate

PNS Aslat is a testament to Pakistan’s friendship with China: PM Nawaz Sharif.

KARACHI:

Indigenisation of defence production is a top priority of the country, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said at the induction ceremony of the locally built frigate PNS Aslat at PN Dockyard on Tuesday.

PNS Aslat is the first F-22P frigate of Pakistan Navy which has been indigenously built at Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) in collaboration with the China Shipbuilding & Trading Company.

The ship was commissioned on April 17 this year and inducted on Tuesday into the PN Fleet after proving its combat readiness.

Prior to this, three F-22P frigates namely PNS Shamsheer, PNS Saif and PNS Zulfiqar have been built and delivered by China, which now form an important part of PN fleet.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said PNS Aslat is a testament to the long-standing ties and deep-rooted Sino-Pak friendship. ”Pakistan’s strategic location could be exploited to its advantage only through development of maritime sector and a capable navy,” he said.



Pakistan Navy was effectively defending and acting as a source of security for international trade plying off the country’s coast, he said.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Asif Sandila said Pakistan’s defence policy was based on peaceful co-existence with other states. He said the country had no aggressive designs against any other country.

He said that Pakistan Navy was fully prepared to safeguard the country’s maritime interests. He said the commissioning of indigenously-built PNS Aslat was a commitment of Pakistan Navy to augment its capabilities through self-reliance.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2013.