President, PM laud Pakistan Navy for safeguarding maritime interests

He described the operation as a defining moment that “laid the foundations of a formidable force” and demonstrated the bravery and tenacity that continue to define the Pakistan Navy today. The president noted that this same spirit had been carried forward into more recent operations.

He specifically cited the Navy’s role during Marka-e-Haq in May 2025, when the force helped safeguard Pakistan’s maritime interests by maintaining operational readiness and forward deployments that kept a numerically larger Indian Navy from threatening the country’s maritime security.

He also referenced Operation Muhafiz-ul-Bahr, launched amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East, through which the Navy worked to protect Pakistan’s energy security and economic lifelines by ensuring the continued flow of sea-borne energy supplies.

President Zardari highlighted the Navy’s ongoing modernisation efforts, pointing to the induction of new warships, the Hangor-class submarines, jet aircraft, unmanned systems and indigenously developed long-range missiles as evidence of the force’s push to remain “a contemporary and potent maritime force.”Beyond its defence role, the president underlined the Navy’s contributions to maritime diplomacy, pointing to the multinational Exercise Aman and the associated Aman Dialogue, held under the theme “Together for Peace,” as platforms for regional and international cooperation.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif paid rich tributes to the martyrs, veterans and serving Pakistan Navy personnel who had rendered invaluable services and continued to do so; with their courage, sacrifices and devotion to duty in the defence of our motherland. The prime minister extended his warmest felicitations to the officers, sailors and civilians of Pakistan Navy and their families.

He said 8th September served as an inspirational reminder of the nerve, valour and grit demonstrated by Pakistan Navy, during the 1965 war. It was on this day, that Pakistan Navy executed the legendary Operation SOMNATH on the Indian Naval Station, Dwarka.

Against a heavily armed and larger adversary, our warships struck with absolute precision and destroyed critical shore installations of the enemy and established psychological ascendancy at sea. The presence of our submarine ‘GHAZI’ in the Indian Ocean further paralyzed the enemy movements etching a golden chapter in the history of naval warfare, he added.

During Marka-e-Haq in 2025, the prime minister said Pakistan Navy demonstrated the same spirit and operational preparedness that deterred a numerically superior enemy from undertaking any act of aggression at sea. In contemporary strategic landscape, he observed that the responsibilities of our Navy have grown manifold.

He said beyond traditional security, Pakistan Navy actively projected soft power around the globe.

Its initiatives such as Exercise AMAN and AMAN Dialogue were directed towards congregating the international Naval community under the banner, ‘Together for Peace’, adding similarly, Pakistan Navy enjoys strong good-will in the region through operational and technical engagements, maritime industrial linkages, mutual training exchanges and maritime diplomacy.