Pakistan appoints Asif Sandila new Naval Chief

Pakistan has appointed Admiral Muhammad Asif Sandila as country’s new Naval Chief, state television reported on Wednesday. PTV reported that President Asif Ali Zardari approved promotion of the Vice-Admiral Asif Sandila to the rank of Admiral and approved his appointment.  He will assume charge on the retirement of the incumbent Naval Chief, Numan basher.  The newly-appointed Naval Chief met President Asif Zardari and discussed professional matters of the navy, the PTV reported.  Admiral Sandila has served as the Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Navy, a staff post that had been second-in-command of Chief of Naval Staff, and as commander of the Naval Strategic Forces Command.  He had joined Pakistan Navy in 1972 and after initial training at Pakistan Naval Academy, he was selected for training at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth (UK).  He was commissioned in the Operations Branch in June 1975. He specialized as Principal Warfare Officer from UK. He did Naval Command and Staff Course from Indonesia and M Sc (War Studies) from National Defence University. He has held various command and staff appointments. On operational sea billets, he has commanded Pakistan Navy destroyer PNS BADR and has also commanded 25th Destroyer Squadron of Pakistan  On staff side, he has served as Divisional Officer and Training Commander at Pakistan Naval Academy and Fleet Operations Officer to Commander Pakistan Fleet. At Naval Headquarters, he was assigned the duties of Flag Lt to Chief of the Naval Staff, Director Project (Plans), Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Plans) and Principal Secretary to Chief of the Naval Staff.  He was promoted to Flag rank in Nov 2005. As Flag Officer, he has headed the Operations and Project Branches of PN in the capacity of Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Operations) and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Projects) at Naval Headquarters Islamabad. In the field, he has been DG Maritime Security Agency, Commander Pakistan Fleet and Commander Logistics before taking over his present appointment as Chief of Staff (COS) at Naval Headquarters.  Admiral Sandila is recipient of the highest military award of Hilal-e-Imtiaz and Chevalier de II order National Due Merit for rescue of French national in Maldives during Tsunami in December 2004.