Article Posted on : - Dec 21, 2009

The F-22 frigate INS Shamsheer.

ISLAMABAD (PTI): The second of four F-22P frigates ordered by Pakistan from China has been commissioned at a shipyard in Shanghai.

The frigate, named PNS Shamsheer, was commissioned Saturday during a ceremony attended by Pakistani navy chief Admiral Nauman Bashir and other top Pakistani and Chinese officials.

“PNS Shamsheer is a very potent addition to the Pakistan Navy fleet and is to form a mainstay of the navy's surface assets with (the other F-22P frigates),” Bashir said.

The first F-22P frigate, PNS Zulfiquar, was delivered to the Pakistan Navy in August. The two countries had signed a contract for four frigates in 2005.

Three of the warships will be built in China while the last one is being constructed at Karachi Shipyard under a transfer of technology arrangement.

Bashir said the F-22P project is “progressing smoothly and all required objectives associated with it are being achieved within the stipulated timeframe.”

The frigates are equipped with advanced weaponry and sensors. They also carry Z9EC helicopters.

Pakistani naval officials said the addition of these warships will strengthen the naval fleet and contribute to enhancing the country's shipbuilding capabilities.

Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was earlier scheduled to go to China for the commissioning of the second frigate but was barred from travelling abroad after an anti- corruption agency reopened a probe against him following the annulment of a graft amnesty by Pakistan’s Supreme Court.