Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah, expressed his satisfaction over the positive change of enhanced safety culture within Pakistan Navy.
Pakistan Navy’s Annual Safety Review for the year 2014 was held at Bahria Auditorium on Friday. Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah was the chief guest on the occasion.
Pakistan Navy safety review; an important forum in the calendar of events of Pakistan Navy, is held every year with an aim to evaluate the overall safety standards at various Pakistan Navy Fleet Units and Establishments thereby inculcating safety consciousness among PN personnel. Since its inception, the event has effectively contributed in enhancing safety culture in Pakistan Navy.
The naval chief was assertive of the fact that we are a developing country and the nation is spending a significant amount of resources for maritime defence and has afforded us sophisticated and capable assets to undertake our assigned tasks.
Therefore, we cannot afford to lose valuable lives, costly platforms and equipment because of ignorance of safety rules at any level. It is thus incumbent upon us to safeguard our assets with utmost care.
Addressing the ceremony, the naval chief said that Safety demands training of personnel for operations at sea, following Standard Operating Procedures and taking necessary measures to avoid damage to men and material. He further said that analysis of past incidents undoubtedly is an important and paramount consideration to ensure success of various evolutions both in peace and war.
Admiral Zakaullah emphasized that we must work to establish a culture of openness and transparency.
He expressed his hope that lessons learnt during the Safety Review will nurture a regime that will make our naval operations safe.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Commander Pakistan Fleet Vice Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi said that 2014 was a year with a whole range of challenging operational, maintenance and admin activities.
The important ones being Live Weapon Firing, series of joint exercises with Pakistan Air Force, UAE and Russian
Navies, Overseas deployments and special operations exercises, which tested the men and material to the limits.