[3] In 1949, Rear-Admiral James Wilfred Jefford laid the foundation of the hydrographic arm within the Pakistan Navy with Captain Colin Goyder Little— a Commander in the Royal Australian Navy at that time— was its first commanding officer as hydrographer of Pakistan.

[4] The Office is mandated to conduct scientific inquiries on hydrographic surveys of maritime borders of Pakistan by publishing the military nautical maps and datasets.

[10] The project was commissioned by Ministry of Science and Technology which delegated the project to National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) as a civilian department along with the National Hydrographic Office Pakistan as a military department in 2005.

[10] In 2009, Government of Pakistan submitted its claim United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which approved the extension of the shelf from 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) to 350 nautical miles (650 km; 400 mi).

[10] With this approval, Pakistan became the first country in the Indian Ocean to have successfully achieved extension in outer limits of continental shelf.