Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza (; born 1943) was a Pakistan Navy officer who served as the Chief of Naval Staff from 1999 until retiring in 2002, amid taking over the command of the Navy after the revolt and resignation Admiral Fasih Bokhari over the appointment of Chairman joint chiefs.
After retiring from the Navy, he briefly tenured as the Pakistan Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2001 to 2005 and later becoming the CEO of The Centaurus in Islamabad. During his military service in the Navy, Admiral Mirza is given credit for commissioning the country's first ingeniously and locally built long-range submarine, the Agosta 90B submarine in 1999.
Biography
Early life and naval career
Abdul Aziz Mirza was born in small town, Dhamali Kallar Syedan, in Rawalpindi, Punjab, British India, in 1943. He was born into an influential military family, and his father briefly enlisted in the British Indian Army, retiring as chief warrant officer (CWO) in the Frontier Force Regiment of the Pakistan Army.
After his graduation from local high school, he went to attend the Military College Jhelum and secured his graduation before joining the Pakistan Navy in 1961.
After graduation, Mirza applied for the Pakistan Military Academy and was selected with Pervez Musharraf and PQ Mehdi for the interview by the commandants in 1961. After passing the physical, he was studied at the Pakistan Military Academy with Pervez Musharraf who remained his life-long friend and Ali Kuli Khan.
He was later sent to attend the Naval Academy in Turkey where he was trained for his basic training and gained military commission as Sub-Lieutenant in the Naval Operations Branch in the Navy in 1964.
He was trained as a surface warfare officer and took participation in second war with India in 1965 against the Indian Navy as a gunnery specialist. In the war of 1965 he served in PNS Dhaka. In 1969–71, Lt. Mirza served in the Submarine Command before reporting at the Naval Base Iqbal where he underwent in training as a military diver and war specialist in the Navy SEALs Teams of the Special Services Group of the Navy, later serving in the Eastern Pakistan where he participating in counter-insurgency operations before being assigned at the Submarine Command.
After the war, he began engage with his studies and went to join the French War College where he graduated with a Master's degree in War studies. In 1980s, he served on the faculty at the Naval War College in Karachi and taught English at the Naval Academy, also in Karachi.
Staff and Command appointments
Throughout his career in Navy, Mirza commanded two submarines– the Daphné and Agosta 70. Mirza also commanded the guided missile destroyer and a fleet of tankers as an officer in the Navy. In 1990, he was posted at the Navy NHQ as a Naval Secretary, and held officer commanding assignments, first serving as the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) of the 25th Destroyer Squadron as Commodore in 1993. In 1994, he was promoted as Rear-Admiral and made Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, working on various defence and procurement programmes. In 1994, he led series of complicated and lengthy negotiations, together with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, with France over the technology transfer of Agosta 90B class long-range submarines.
It was during this time, he became closer to many politicians and bureaucrats while working on the procurement deals in 1994–97. In 1997, he was appointed as DCNS (Operations) and elevated as Vice Chief of Naval Staff with a rank of Vice-Admiral.
Kargil war and Naval chief
In 1999, India and Pakistan engaged in military confrontation in Kargil sector, due a misadventure led by then-Chief of army staff General Pervez Musharraf. He did not endorsed the secret infiltration to support General Pervez Musharraf but rather remaining quiet in favor of army chief. Allegations have been levelled against him of misguiding the naval chief Admiral Fasih Bokhari on the matters of Kargil war in favor of army chief, and his revolt against the decision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over the appointment of Chairman joint chiefs.
In 1999, he held a press conference together with Mushahid Hussain Syed, then-Information Minister, and ultimately warned India of escalating the tensions in the region.