Who Was the First Muslim Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Navy?

The first Muslim to command the Pakistan Navy was Vice Admiral Haji Mohammad Siddiq Choudri, usually known as H. M. S. Choudri. He took over as Commander-in-Chief on 31 January 1953 and led the navy until early 1959. Before him, the service had been commanded since independence by a British officer, Rear Admiral James Wilfred Jefford.

Correction: an earlier version of this article named Admiral Mohammad Shariff as the first Muslim Commander-in-Chief. That was wrong. Admiral Shariff led the navy two decades later, from 1975 to 1979; his career is summarised at the end of this article.

Commander-in-Chief and Chief of the Naval Staff

Commander-in-Chief was the title of the head of the Pakistan Navy until 20 March 1972, when the post was renamed Chief of the Naval Staff. The Chief of the Naval Staff is the navy's highest-ranking officer. So the first Muslim "navy chief" of Pakistan was the first Pakistani Commander-in-Chief: H. M. S. Choudri.

Early Life

Naval records give Choudri's date of birth as 10 May 1911, in Batala, in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab. He studied industrial chemistry at Forman Christian College in Lahore. He was called "Haji" because he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca with his mother as a young man.

The First Indian Executive Officer

Choudri passed the entrance examination in Delhi in 1930 and was sent to England for training, including at the Britannia Royal Naval College. He returned to India in 1933 as the first Indian to hold an executive commission in the service, which was renamed the Royal Indian Navy in 1934. An executive commission was the route to command at sea, so he was the first Indian in line to command one of its warships.

Second World War

During the Second World War Choudri commanded the auxiliary minesweeper HMIS Parvati in the Red Sea. The official history of the Royal Indian Navy records that the Parvati carried the 15th Punjab Regiment, the first troops to land, in a landing against Italian forces in March 1941. On 30 April 1941, while patrolling off the Italian-held port of Assab, the Parvati struck a mine and sank within minutes.

Choudri stayed aboard to direct the evacuation and was dragged under by the sinking ship before he was rescued.

He later commanded the minesweeper HMIS Rohilkhand and, from February 1945, the sloop HMIS Godavari . He was appointed MBE in the 1945 Birthday Honours.

Partition and the New Navy

When British India was partitioned in 1947, Choudri was one of four officers, two Muslim and two Hindu, on the sub-committee that divided the ships and assets of the Royal Indian Navy between India and Pakistan. He then joined the Royal Pakistan Navy as Chief of Staff under Jefford.

Commander-in-Chief, 1953 to 1959

Choudri took command of the Royal Pakistan Navy on 31 January 1953, the first Pakistani and the first Muslim to do so. The navy he led was young and small, built from the ships and men Pakistan had received at partition. During his six years in command it added a dockyard, depots and training establishments, and became more self-sufficient. In 1956, when Pakistan became a republic, the service dropped "Royal" from its name and became the Pakistan Navy.

In July 1957 the British cruiser HMS Diadem was renamed PNS Babur at Portsmouth on her transfer to Pakistan.

Choudri argued that Pakistan, whose eastern and western wings were separated by India, needed a strong ocean-going navy. He held that the defence of East Pakistan had to be based on the sea, and that a blockade of Pakistan's sea routes could cripple an army and air force that depended on supplies from abroad.

Resignation

That view put him at odds with General Ayub Khan, who gave priority to the army and air force. After a long dispute over the navy's budget, size and shape, Choudri resigned on 26 January 1959. In his resignation letter he said the government's decisions on the future of the navy had been taken against the technical advice he had consistently given. Commodore Afzal Rahman Khan succeeded him.

Later Life

After leaving the navy Choudri turned to business and public work, and in 1959 he helped found a technical school in Lahore that became the Pakistan Foundation High School. He died of a heart attack at PNS Shifa Hospital in Karachi on 27 February 2004, aged 92, and was buried with full military honours. In 2014 the navy named its new air station at Turbat, PNS Siddique, after him.

Where Admiral Mohammad Shariff Fits

Admiral Mohammad Shariff, sometimes wrongly named as the first Muslim navy chief, belonged to a later generation. Born in 1920, he joined the Royal Indian Navy as a sailor in 1936 and rose through the ranks. In 1971 he commanded the navy's Eastern Command in East Pakistan and was taken prisoner at the end of the war.

He was Chief of the Naval Staff from March 1975 to March 1979, became the navy's first four-star admiral in 1976, and was the first admiral to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. He died in 2020.

Heads of the Pakistan Navy, 1947 to 1979

• Rear Admiral James Wilfred Jefford: 1947 to 1953
• Vice Admiral H. M. S. Choudri: 1953 to 1959
• Vice Admiral Afzal Rahman Khan: 1959 to 1966
• Vice Admiral S. M. Ahsan: 1966 to 1969
• Vice Admiral Muzaffar Hassan: 1969 to 1971
• Vice Admiral Hasan Hafeez Ahmed: 1972 to 1975, the first with the title Chief of the Naval Staff
• Admiral Mohammad Shariff: 1975 to 1979

Conclusion

H. M. S. Choudri was the first Muslim, and the first Pakistani, to lead the Pakistan Navy. He took command in 1953 of a service only a few years old, pressed for a navy large enough to defend both wings of the country, and resigned in 1959 when the government would not back that plan. For the navy today, see our guide to Pakistan Navy ranks and our Pakistan Navy career guide.