ISLAMABAD, March 17: Pakistan is bracing up to play a major role in maritime counter-terrorism, as it takes over the command of the Coalition Maritime Security Force (CMSF) next month.

Defence sources told Dawn that the name of a Rear Admiral of Pakistan Navy to assume the responsibility as the CMSF commander will be finalised within a week after the return of the naval chief from a foreign visit.

The commander will operate for five months from the NAVCENT Naval Central Command (NAVCENT) Headquarters in Bahrain. Forty- five ships, 25 of them of the US Navy, will participate in the Maritime Security Operations (MSO).

He said the CMSF will patrol 2.5 million square miles of international waters to conduct integrated and coordinated operations to preserve the free and secure use of the world’s oceans by legitimate mariners and prevent terrorists from attempting to use the oceans as a venue for attack or as a medium to transport personnel or material.

The CMSF consists of ships from the US and other NATO countries, Pakistan and from the member-countries of the Gulf Co- operation Council (GCC).

According to the Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, “The task of the CMSF will be to carry out anti-terrorist and anti-narcotics activities.

The coalition force is responsible for conducting MSO in international waters in the Arabian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

The coalition maritime forces, coming under the command of NAVCENT, have been divided into two Task Force 150 and Task Force 152. Task Force 150 was set up before 9/11 after the Al Qaeda attack on the US naval ship USS Cole, in 2000 off Aden.

Its initial task was confined to protecting high-value shipping in the Gulf of Aden region. After 9/11, it was made responsible, under Operation Enduring Freedom, for MSO in an area stretching from the southern edge of the Suez Canal to the Straits of Hormuz and down the east African coast to Kenya, about 2.5 million square miles. Task Force 152 covers the central and southern regions of the Gulf.

Task Force 150 has about 10 frigates or destroyers from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand.

Normally, the ships operate within their own waters, but come out of them for joint exercises or joint operations. Thus, the Pakistani ships forming part of the Task Force generally operate in Pakistani territorial waters. It is their responsibility to ensure that there is no act of maritime terrorism in their waters.