By Sumaira Manzoor
On December 27, 2021, Pakistan’s National Security Committee approved the National Security Policy. It is the first ever of its kind in Pakistan. It took about seven years to draft the national security policy document. This process was initiated shortly after the APS terrorist attack in 2014 and was completed during the time of the country’s National Security Advisor, Moeed Yousaf.
The national security policy of Pakistan includes:
The Safety and Security of all Citizens – We can termed it as a citizen-centric policy. It is the most comprehensive policy document because it covers the internal and external aspects of security. Seven key features /components of security have been identified in this historic document.
– National Cohesion: it is on the top most priority which means creating harmony, good will and territorial integrity of Pakistan
– Internal security of Pakistan: it refers to the very long debate of maintaining law and order, combating terrorism, extremism as well as countering insurgencies in Pakistan.
– Economic security: the third component refers to economic security- it has been emphasized by the country’s premier as well as by the national security advisor of Pakistan, which means Pakistan’s overall national security is based on its economic security.
– Governance: It means to improve the service delivery of governmental departments especially with reference to law enforcement agencies and economic policy makers.
– Human security aspects: It is relatively a new concept in modern literature, it focuses on individual’s security i.e. Political security and economic security of the country.
– Foreign Policy: It means Pakistan’s security interests vis-à-vis other states and specially when Pakistan makes alliances, treaties and agreements with other states; that how it affects the national security policy of Pakistan.
– Territorial security: Territorial security threats can be overcome by efficient national security policy of the country. We can see it in the context of military security.
A holistic document of Pakistan’s national security policy has been made by combining these seven components. Different departments have played a pivotal role in making this document-so we can say that it is a consensus-based document in which different civilian and military departments took part.
Context of framing national security policy:
Why was there a need to develop a national security policy for the first time in the history of Pakistan? We can mention three major factors/ reasons:
1) Changing security threats in the 21st century
All over the globe has been facing different security threats with no exception of Pakistan -for example cyber-attacks, fifth generation warfare (Pakistan has been a victim of) hybrid warfare, narrative building and using unconventional means to destabilize states (violence and protests are the major examples in our country)
Emergence of new cold war in the neighborhood, formation of new alliances in the region is a major threat to Pakistan’s security, specially growing Indo-US nexus. Most importantly we cannot ignore the situation of Afghanistan that is most challenging internally and externally for Pakistan.
2) Changing priorities in foreign policy of Pakistan
Second major factor for the formation of national security policy is the changing priorities of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Pakistan’s historical experience of foreign policy gave us a lesson that strategic interests are important but to achieve them we need to have a strong economic foundation. For this we are observing a change in foreign policy from geostrategic to geo-economics, it doesn’t mean that Pakistan will ignore geostrategic aspects but just means that economic interests are fundamental to achieve geostrategic interests. Component of peace that has been included in the country’s policy is a need to stabilize Pakistan economically.
So, in order to create a synchronization between these two major interests Pakistan has to build a national security policy.
3) Institutionalization of military’s role in internal security of Pakistan
Military had been a major stakeholder in Pakistan in terms of internal security policy and foreign policy due to several reasons. We have observed it during the East Pakistan crisis and in the Balochistan issue very well. Since last three to four decades different institutions has been made to rationalize the major role of military in domestic affairs of the country. For this context National Security Council was made during the regime of General Zia ul Haq in 1980s. but under 13th amendment to the constitution of Pakistan National Security Council was abolished, abolishing this institution means limiting the military into internal security matters- although constitution has provided them a provision to involve in domestic issues as and when required.
During General Musharraf era, role of military leadership has increased once again that institutionalized and constitutionalized several military operations in Baluchistan, Sawat Waziristan; but this is not stopped here , under 18th amendment it was again abolished in 2010.(during this period Pakistan has faced several terrorist attacks and threats).
In 2014, when APS Peshawar terror attack took place-one of the worst tragedy in the history of Pakistan. After this attack civil and military leadership realized that the military’s involvement in domestic security issues is very important. During this period several short-term apex committees was formed including military leadership to combat terrorism, that model works very well. During the last government of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif we had seen a divide between military and civilian leadership as a result of which apex committees become almost unfunctional.
Consequently, during the period of PTI, National security advisor Moed Yousaf has realized the importance of involvement of military as an institution as a major stakeholder in playing major role in internal and external security of Pakistan; therefore, it is in the context some scholars believes the national security policy of Pakistan was introduced and we will see a greater institutional role of military establishment in the internal policy of Pakistan.
Although some scholars believe that national security policy as a ‘mean’ to institutionalize military’s role in domestic affairs, however- whatever is the context what we do know is that- National security policy is a first of its kind document which have a greater role in Pakistani politics and and it reflects the changing regional, global and internal security dynamics of Pakistan.
Lastly, I am going to discuss- what could be the possible challenges in the enforcement and implementation of national security policy.
Every policy needs an institutional framework for its implementation and enforcement. For example, we have a military for external security, different institutions such as law enforcement agencies for internal security but now we are establishing a link between external and internal security policy. Historically we have had a national security council for this purpose but now how can we enforce this on an operational level. There is no specific institution for this purpose yet it is not decided who will oversee this institution- the parliament or some other institution, that is a big question mark.
Challenge to enforce this policy is that Pakistan is trying to make the economic component as a major component of the security policy. Geo economic shift could be a desire of Pakistan in the right direction, but regional and global dynamics permit us to prioritize the economic interests, especially regional security dynamics happening in the neighboring world. The beginning of a new cold war, the rise of Taliban, aggressive India and Iranian problems with the west—will they not push us to security centric policy?
To sum up the entire discussion we can say that this national security policy is a very important step and a step in the right direction however, historically, Pakistan issued different documents that were very good on paper but when it comes to their implementation they were not so successful. With reference to this security policy document, its success lies fundamentally on three factors i) whether this policy be implemented in true letter and spirit ii) whether civil-military leadership remains on the same page or not? iii) if the political institutions/ elite/ parties will be on the same page or not. So we can say that it could be difficult to really implement such a security policy.
Author: Sumaira Manzoor –Lecturer in Political Science , Govt. Graduate College for women Satellite Town, Bahawalpur.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy or views of World Geostrategic Insights).