Mohammad Asif Sandila NI(M) HI(M) SI(M) LoM OM BJSN BYD (Urdu: محمد ﺁصف سندیلہ; born: 1954, NI(M), HI(M), LoH, LoM), is a retired four-star admiral in the Pakistan Navy who was the 19th Chief of Naval Staff of the Pakistan Navy.
[2] Prior to this command appointment, Sandila briefly tenured as the Vice Chief Naval Staff in the Pakistan Navy which he assumed in 2010.
[3][4] In 2011, President Asif Ali Zardari, on the request of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, promoted Sandila to four-star admiral and appointed him as the Chief of the Naval Staff on 7 October 2011 upon retirement of the then Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir.
[5] Asif Sandila was born into a Punjabi Jat family in a village at the Sangla Hill located in Sheikhupura District, Punjab in Pakistan in 1954.
[6][7][8] After his matriculation from a local high school in 1967, Sandila went to attend Cadet College Kohat where he secured his FSc, and went to join the Pakistan Navy in 1972.
Sandila later commanded Badr, a guided-missile destroyer, and did a tour of duty when he visited Middle East and the Europe.
Sandila took over the command of the 25th Destroyer Squadron as its officer in tactical command, and was leading the task force for overseeing the rescue operations from Maldives, where he was credited of rescuing more than 370 European tourists affected by the deadly underwater earthquake and tsunami in Indian Ocean in 2004.
[3][20] At the time of the promotion to the four-star appointment in 2011, V-Adm. Sandila was in a race along with four senior admirals in the Navy, though V-Adm. Sandila was the most senior among all: On 6 October 2011, Farahnaz Ispahani, the presidential spokesperson, confirmed that the President Zardari has approved the promotion paper and promoted V-Adm. Sandila as four-star admiral in the Navy, taking the command of the Navy from Adm. Numan as its Chief of Naval Staff on 8 October 2011.