Vice AdmiralHasan Hafeez Ahmed (Urdu:حسن حفيظ احمد; b. 1926-8 March 1975: 329 [2]), TQA, usually shortened to H.H. Ahmed, was a senior Pakistan Navy officer who served as the first Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) of Pakistan Navy from 1972 until his death from sickness in 1975.[2]
Despite appointed to the four-star appointment, he was retained at the three-star rank and took over the command of the Navy from its Commander-in-Chief Vice-Admiral Muzaffar Hassan who was dismissed from the military service.
Biography
Hassan Hafeez Ahmad was born in Multan, Punjab, British India, in 1926.: 3 [1] He was educated in a local school in Multan and was a contemporary of Mansoor Shah who would later join the Pakistan Air Force in 1947.: 288–289 [3]
After participating in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 he continued to serve as commander of the coastal defense command but demoted to Commodore in the Navy.: 180 [6] In 1972, he was elevated as the first Chief of Naval Staff after the dismissal of Muzaffar Hassan. He was the most junior officer and superseded five senior's including three Rear-Admirals and two Commodores.: 76–77 [7]
As a naval chief, his task was to reconstruct and rebuild the navy into a formidable force.: 46 [8] In a short spa of time, he transformed the Navy into three-dimensional force when he commissioned the naval aviation and commissioning the new Navy NHQ in Rawalpindi in the vicinity of Army GHQ in 1974.: 46 [8]
On 8 March 1975, he died from sickness unexpectedly while serving as naval chief and commanding the navy, at the age of 49.: 44 [9] He was the first of three chief's of staff who died in the office- the others being General Asif Nawaz and Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir.