In 1954, he was commissioned as Midshipman in the Operations Branch of the Pakistan Navy and was sent to the United Kingdom to be trained at as a navigation specialist. Upon his return in 1958, he was promoted as sub-lieutenant in the Navy and served aboard PNS Tariq in gunnery. In the 1960s, he was the commanding officer of PNS Tariq and participated in the second war with India in 1965 and then in the third war with India in 1971 as an artillery specialist and earned a nickname "Beast of the Sea" by his superiors.
