Rising through the ranks, Mehmet Vasıf became a lieutenant general in 1830 or 1831. He then served, from the 1830s through the 1850s, as governor (wali) of Niş, Salonica, Vidin, Arabistan, and Trabzon. From the 1830s to the 1850s, Mehmet Vasıf Pasha was as a (governor) of Serbia, commander of the army in Arabistan and commander-in-chief in Anatolia. In 1855, he, as a commander-in-chief in Anatolia, was aided by the British officer William Williams, who effectively led the Turkish defense of Kars against the Russian forces in the Crimean War.