By Andrew Detsch
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 once again with an ambitious vision of Pakistan’s role in the world. “Undoubtedly, our foreign policy demands a brave revision” he told a national television audience in one of his first speeches as prime minister, without which Pakistan “could not become [one of the] Asian Tigers.”
That “brave revision” points in part to a robust naval modernization program, including a major push to revamp Pakistan’s fledgling submarine fleet. As a Muslim-majority country with a fully serviceable Navy (surface vessels, submarines and a naval air arm), the Pakistan Navy (PN) hopes to become “the guardian navy of the Gulf regions.” Haris Khan, a senior analyst at PakDef Military Consortium, an independent Tampa-based think tank, tells The Diplomat in an interview.
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