The Eleventh Adjutant (1976-1977)

Hayat Sb's family originally belongs to Swat, although they settled down in Dist. Mansehra. The young Mohammed Hayat had his early schooling at the Govt. High School at Battal. He passed his Matric from there in 1961. He was good at studies, and had acquired 6th position in Hazara Division.

Soon after matric, he decided to join Pakistan Navy and was recruited as a sailor. He soon realized that he can join the ranks of officers if he were to sit for a special examination which is equivalent to F.Sc. In 1963, he qualified for the examination and then applied to be inducted as an officer. He was selected and entered Pakistan Naval Academy in 1964.

He finally got his commission as an officer in Pakistan Navy in 1968. For the next 3 years, he sailed on different naval ships and went through the initial trainings.

With war looming over the horizon, he was transferred to East Pakistan on 16 November 1971. Thus when the Pakistan Armed Forces surrendered to the Indian forces on 16 December 1971, he was amongst the prisoners-of-war. He was taken to India and was incarcerated at the POW camp at Sagar, UP. Three years later, he was released and repatriated to Pakistan along with the other POWs in 1974.

After his return to Pakistan, he was posted to different ships.  In 1975, he was selected for an Anti-Submarine course in the UK. He spent 6 months there and was posted back to the sea on his return.

As a Lieutenant, he was selected and posted to Cadet College Petaro for two years as adjutant of the college between 1976-1977. While he was still at Petaro, he was promoted to the rank of Lieut. Commander.

In 1977-1978, he commanded a mine sweeper, and was then sent to the USA for a staff course at the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. Upon his return, he was poasted as Staff Officer in the Naval Secretariat at the Naval Headquarters.

During 1979, he was called upon to set up an anti-submarine course at PNS Himalaya. He remained Officer In Charge of this training program.

The following year, he was sent on deputation to Saudi Arabia, where he remained until 1984. When he was about to leave to Saudi Arabia, he should have been promoted to the next rank. But as luck would have it, Admiral Niazi passed a new rule that any officer who is on deputation abroad cannot be promoted while he is away and his seniority upon return will be the same as at the time he left. Thus, while many of his juniors got promoted, Hayat Sb lost three and a half years of seniority, and was finally promoted to the rank of Commander in 1984. Sixty other officers of the Pakistan Navy were affected by this ruling.

In 1984, he was made the Staff Officer to COMPAK, and then in 1985 he was appointed to the personal staff of the Chairman, Joint Staff HQ. After serving 3 years at this post, he was appointed as Deputy Director Naval Intelligence at the Naval Headquarters in 1988. In 1991, he was transferred to the Military Wing of the Cabinet Division as Staff Officer.

Cdr. Hayat finally retired from Pakistan Navy in 1992.

After a couple of years of rest, he then worked for over 5 years as the Managing Director of Bahria Travels (a subsidiary of the Bahria Foundation) between 1995-2001.

Since 2003, Cdr.(R) Hayat has been employed as a Project Manager with International Marketing & Trading Co. (Pvt) Ltd in Islamabad.

I got a chance to meet him for the first time at the end of 2010. He then joined us for dinner at the Petarian get together at the end of December 2010.

It has been a pleasure to meet him and to get to know him. He is a very humble person so easy to get along with.

Lt.Cdr. Mohammed Hayat - 1976 (Petaro Days)

Cdr. Mohammed Hayat - 1994