Zahid Ilyas

Zahid Ilyas
Zahid Ilyas
	Ilyas as Vice Admiral, 2020
Allegiance	Pakistan
Service/branch	Pakistan Navy
Years of service	1988–present
Rank	Vice admiral
Commands held	Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, Operations; COMCOAST; Commander Karachi Coast(COMKAR); Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff,Training & Evaluation; Director General C4I; Principal Secretary Chief of Naval Staff; Directing Staff at PN War College; Commander Central Punjab/CommandantNaval War College; Pakistan Naval Academy; Combined Task Force 151; 18th Destroyer Squadron
Awards	Hilal-i-Imtiaz ; Sitara-e-Basalat
Alma mater	Pakistan Naval War College; National Defence University

Vice admiral Zahid Ilyas is a flag officer and a three-star rank admiral in the Pakistan Navy currently serving as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, Operations (DCNS-O) , he took the office as DCNS-O in November 2021. His previous assignments include Commander Coast (COMCOAST), commanding officer PNS Babur and PNS Zulfiquar. He was also appointed to Pakistan Naval Academy as a commanding officer.

He graduated from the Pakistan Naval War College and the National Defence University besides obtaining a master's degree in military operational research from the UK and naval command course from China.^[1]

Career[]

He joined the Pakistan Navy in 1984 and got commissioned in Operations branch in 1988.^[2] He served at various posts and units throughout his career such as commander of the 18th destroyer squadron and Combined Task Force 151 for Pakistan headquartered in Bahrain. At staff assignments, his was appointed as principal secretary to Chief of Naval Staff, Director General C4I and Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff,Training & Evaluation in Islamabad.^[3] During his career, he also served as director general at Joint Cantonment Gwadar Branch in Rawalpindi.^[1]