ORMARA: “We didn’t push out any of the locals to build a naval base in Ormara. We are not land grabbers!” said Commander Coast Rear Admiral Syed Arifullah Hussaini. The commander coast who is in charge of all of Pakistan Navy’s units and establishments along the coastal belt and creek areas was replying to questions from the media at the Jinnah Naval Base (JNB) here on Monday.

“Pakistan’s coast has a strategic importance due to the country’s location. We are a heartland. But obviously you can’t build a port everywhere along the coast,” he said.

“It is in maritime interest to safeguard our coast. Coastal defence is the navy’s job. JNB provides a firm base for the navy by having a hospital, a proper facility to guard the area and through surveillance and radars, storage of fuel and food rations, parking of naval vessels, etc. We have an airport, helipads for the needed support for our fleet. Due to its height, Ormara is an ideal spot to place radars at. Radars placed here get an extra 50km range. Then the hills here save us from the rough sea. It was after all the geographic features of Ormara that helped us develop a base here,” he explained.

“And building a base here also meant that we develop the entire area in general. We have become a bridge between the business community in Karachi and the poor fisher folk of Ormara,” he pointed out.

The commander coast’s words were given meaning during the media visit to the area. In order to contribute towards the empowerment of the local communities, the navy has built several facilities and undertaken various welfare activities that besides helping the naval personnel and their families are also accessible to the area locals. The PNS Darmaan Jah, a full-scale medical facility housing trauma care, an operation theatre, gynaecological facility, pathology lab, radio diagnostic centre and dental surgery with state of the art equipment, is one example of that.

“Darmaan Jah in Balochi means a place for cure and healing,” said Lt Cmdr Rizwan Ahmed, the acting commanding officer at the hospital who also happens to be a surgical specialist. “We have a daily patient flow of about 150 to 200 at our OPD. These are all local people coming here from Ormara city, Pasni and Gwadar suffering from various problems such as skin and eye diseases and oral health issues as the locals are addicted to gutka. Still, we are trying to spread awareness about it which is slowly showing results. As for the navy patients, we only get 15 to 20 at the most in one day,” he said.

The doctor also said that they got support in the form of medicines only from the government. “There is also no social sector or NGO here and complicated cases also have to be sent to Karachi,” he pointed out.

Another endeavour taken on by the navy is the Coastal Command Women Association Industrial Home which also houses a beauty parlour.

There are also the Cadet College and Bahria Model School set up by the navy for the provision of quality education among the locals and children of navy personnel. The school is co-ed and there are some 60 per cent girl students there while 40pc are boys. Most of the teachers are also female and they hail from the local community though there are also some senior teachers from the rest of the country coming here to train them.

“The standard of the school and the college is at par with the Bahria school and college in Karachi. We follow the same syllabus though classes nine and 10 at the school are affiliated with the Balochistan Board and intermediate is affiliated with the Federal Board,” the school principal, Lt Cmdr Mohammad Iftikhar Khan, said.

The school also has a CNS adopt-a-child scheme where PN officers, sailors and CPOs contribute some money to sponsor a child’s education for one year.

“Currently there are some 54 local children in the school who are being sponsored this way but who they are is a secret so that no child feels inferior,” he said.

Commodore Fayyaz Malik, principal of the Cadet College, said they had 25 seats for which they received 970 applications. “We take in students from all over Pakistan, from Kashmir to Pasni. The students know that all will be treated here the same. You can’t build an educational institution by just constructing a cement structure. There has to be a foundation, a tradition and a culture of learning.”