Tag Archives: Pakistan Navy

Modern navies, struggling with personnel costs, have tried their mightiest to reduce crew size over the last several decades. In practical terms, this means that there simply isn’t a lot of wasted space in a ship crew. Hijackers could ignore or jerry-rig some of the critical functions of the ship, but probably not for long, and not very effectively.

Before his last term ended abruptly in a 1999 military coup, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif dreamed that Pakistan would become an “Asian Tiger,” comparable with the rising economies of Southeast Asia. Pervez Musharraf and Asif Ali Zardari dashed those hopes: Islamabad is now US$58 billion in debt, and economic growth has slowed to a murmur. Nevertheless, Sharif has swept into power …