Syed Mohammad Ahsan HQA, SPk, DSC, DMM, LOM (Urdu: سید محمد احسن b.

Gaining a commission in the Royal Indian Navy, he participated as a naval officer during World War II with the British and later decided to become a Pakistani citizen following the partition of India by the United Kingdom in 1947.

After completing his tenure as naval chief, he was appointed as Governor of East Pakistan while serving as a cabinet minister in the Yahya administration.

[1][8] During World War II he was a RIN naval officer on the side of Great Britain and saw actions in the Atlantic battle against the German Kriegsmarine.

[1] His actions of valor earned him to be decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross by the United Kingdom after the end of World War II in 1945.

[2]: 511 In 1946, he was appointed as aide-de-camp to Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten and assisted him in cabinet meetings to resolve political crises in the British Indian Empire.

[11]: 169–170 When the United Kingdom announced its intentions to partition of India in 1947, Ahsan decided to opt for Pakistan and was introduced by Lord Mountbatten to Muhammad Ali Jinnah as his aide-de-camp.

[17] At December 1952, he was asked by the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence Major-General Robert Cawthome to send a priority report that compiled detail discussions with Pakistani military personnel on the basic principles of the ISI.

[17] In addition, he was also asked for military's reaction towards the Basic Principles Committee where he ultimately warned of the theocracy and concluded that the economic disparities between East and West Pakistan must be addressed to prevent the breaking-up of the nation's unity.

[10] In 1964, he was sent to Dacca and took over the chairmanship of the East-Pakistan Inland Water Transport Authority where he had begun training of East-Pakistani military on riverine tactics with the absence of the strong naval presence.

[21] Rear-Admiral Ahsan and his staff at the Navy NHQ helped planned out the naval offense in Dwarka and partially leading the fleet as its Commander.

[7] Since 1966–68, Admiral Ahsan knew of Indian Navy massive procurement and acquisitions of weapon systems being acquired from the Soviet Union and United Kingdom.

[18]: 63  On multiple meetings with President Ayub, he raised the issue of modernizing the navy against India, and kept warning the Army GHQ of potential and possible Indian Navy's attack on West and East region of the country; his reservations were bypassed on every meeting and warnings were not heed due to the financial reasons.

[25]: 106–107 He led series of unsuccessful talks with the Soviet Navy and Russian Marshal Andrei Grechko in 1969 due to their warming of relations with India.

[18]: 64  However, he struggled with expanding the East-Pakistan Navy's capabilities as many sailors and officers had defected to India to join the Awami League's military wing– the Mukti Bahini.

[29] In August 1969, he joined the Yahya administration as cabinet minister of finance, statistics, commerce, industry, and planning commission.

[31]: 539 [32] The assignment was considered very difficult by the Pakistani military when many senior officials in West were reluctant to accept appointments in East Pakistan.

[35]: 122 Many initiatives were taken by Admiral Ahsan to resolve the political crises of East by keeping in good terms with President Yahya and noted that the six-point were not new.

[40] Under his rule, the law and order had been improved and it was projected that Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would claim the supermajority in the provincial assembly that would allow them to form the national government in Islamabad.

[40] Zulfikar Bhutto refused to negotiate the six points when President Yahya met with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and put more stress on the situation after telling his party workers not to visit Dhaka.

[40] Admiral Ahsan renewed his offer to President Yahya, Rahman, and Bhutto to work out an arrangement where the Pakistani military deployments to support the Eastern Command could get out intact, without being humiliated.

[44] In an article titled "A nation's shame" published in the Newsline magazine of September 2000, Ahsan concluded: But who was responsible for creating this hostile atmosphere and hatred among the people?

First the delay in summoning the National Assembly session and later its postponement confirmed the Bengalis' worst fears, that the election results were not acceptable both to the generals and to the majority of West Pakistani politicians.

Such a transgression was bound to further fuel public resentment.He welcomed the formation of the War Enquiry Commission that was to be chaired by Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman in 1972, and attended its proceedings.

It was evident from the statement that the decision to launch a military operation was taken without consulting the Governor of East Pakistan who was the only sane voice in the government.