ABDUL RASHEED AZAD

ISLAMABAD: Participants of a conference have stressed the need for regular meetings of the National Security Committee (NSC) to make it more effective to deal with the security challenges.

Speaking a the roundtable conference organized by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) titled ‘Effective National Security Consultations – A Look Through Global Models’ the speakers were unanimous that the NSC must meet weekly or at least monthly and be made more effective.

Shahid Hamid, former Federal Minister for Defense and former Governor Punjab, recommended that meetings of the NSC must be held weekly ahead of the meetings of the federal cabinet and consultations or decisions of the NSC must be endorsed by the federal cabinet. This is especially necessary in the light of recent ruling of the Supreme Court that it’s the federal cabinet and not just the elected prime minister, who is constitutionally responsible for executive decision-making in the country.

Muhammad Sadiq, former Secretary National Security Division, said that evolution of Cabinet Committee of National Security or NSC was created through a political consensus. Earlier, the services chiefs were invited to join meetings but were not the full members.

However, then COAS Gen Raheel Sharif (retd) asked for full membership of services chiefs. That led to the change of nomenclature of the committee from a cabinet committee to the National Security Committee. It should be a decision-making body was agreed within the committee that allowed the premier to bypass the cabinet and the Parliament. The change to decision-making body from the originally-planned advisory body affected the committee’s effectiveness as both the COAS and Premier began to meet individually and avoided regular meetings of the committee. Once due to spat between the premier and the interior minister, the meeting was not held for 5 months. The initiative on FATA reforms by the NSC did not at that time receive the support by the military and therefore, despite proposals, the reforms could not be constituted. Sadiq said that it is imperative that the NSC must meet more frequently and preferably on a weekly basis.

Sharing his views on the occasion, Dr Parvez Hassan, senior advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan, said that the NSC must have a law defining its membership. The law must make it compulsory that decisions should only be made by holding physical meeting and bar decision making through circulation of policy decisions. He also proposed that the NSC membership should be enlarged to include other stakeholders such as presiding officers of the Parliament. The tiers of NSC must be activated and involve think tanks and experts who provide policy input to the NSC.

President PILDAT Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, while introducing the subject of the roundtable, said that consultations on national defense and security with key organs of a state, ahead of the executive making policies, are a globally accepted practice. The need for consultations becomes ever more critical in Pakistan as a country that has been ruled by military for a number of years since independence and as a consequence, continues to witness estranged and strained civil-military relations. Over the years, Pakistan has experimented with setting up organs for such a consultation evolved through Defence Committees of the Cabinet, National Security Council and since 2013 a structured National Security Committee (NSC) with a Secretariat. The roundtable discussed comparative global examples on effective functioning of NSCs and posed questions on effectiveness of Pakistan’s NSC in discussing long-term strategic issues and its evolution.

The recommendations and proposals were adopted by the other participants including Lt General (retd) Moinuddin Haider, former federal minister for interior and Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami, senior analyst.

However Shami said that statutory role of NSC will weaken the authority of the federal government which must be avoided. The NSC must be an advisory body and decisions should be taken by the federal cabinet.

Lt Gen Humayon Bangash (retd) said that the role of the secretariat of the NSC is of paramount importance in its effective functioning.

Arif Nizami, senior analyst, said that the dormancy of NSC under the premiership of Nawaz Sharif was due to his personal distaste for institutional structures curtailing his own powers.

The roundtable was joined by a number of eminent personalities including Dr Muhammad Shoaib Suddle, former IG; Diyar Khan, Joint Secretary National Security Division; Ayaz Wazir, former ambassador; Iftikharullah Babar, former Secretary Senate, Muhammad Ziauddin, senior analyst/columnist; Emma Leahey, First Secretary (Political), Australian High Commission; Sabiha Nazir, PML-N MNA; Aisha Sayed, JI MNA; as well as other members of civil society and a large number of media persons.