Over the years, almost all modern states with functional democracies and significant security challenges have evolved institutions where civil and military leadership can engage in informed discussion on security matters. These institutions are headed by the elected political leadership and supported by an administrative and research infrastructure.
In the US National Security Council, the president chairs the meetings and a national security adviser heads the council staff which numbers around 100. Hardly a week goes by when the NSC does not meet. The UK NSC meets every week with the prime minister in the chair. It has 200 full-time staff headed by a national security adviser. India has a three-tier NSC established in 1998, with the apex tier chaired by the prime minister. The other tiers include the strategic planning group and advisory board. The Turkish NSC, established in 1961, has undergone a major transformation from a military-dominated institution to one subordinate to the elected president.
Various governments in Pakistan have toyed with the idea of an NSC. The first was established by Gen Yahya Khan in 1970 but remained mainly on paper. Gen Zia tried to create one by amending the Constitution but the National Assembly successfully thwarted this effort in 1985. Gen Aslam Beg and Gen Jehangir Karamat proposed constituting NSCs in 1992 and 1998 respectively, but the idea did not find favour with the elected leadership.
Malik Meraj Khalid’s caretaker government established a Council for Defence and National Security but Nawaz Sharif, following his election in 1997, allowed it to die a natural death. Gen Musharraf set up an NSC first through a constitutional amendment and later an ordinance.
The present government should be credited with the first serious attempt to create a National Security Committee in 2013, duly supported by a secretariat in the shape of a National Security Division led by an experienced federal secretary. The committee is headed by the prime minister with all three service chiefs and the chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee as its members along with federal ministers for defence, foreign affairs, interior and finance, and the national security advisor. HowÂever, the committee has hardly met and has been practically marginalised for the past one year since its last meeting in October 2014. It seems either that political will has weakened subsequently or reservations from certain quarters have come in the way of regular meetings and effective functioning of the NSC.
Pakistan is facing a number of security challenges and more than one active insurgency. If the state is unable to use the NSC effectively, discontent will be turned into undesirable public expression by one party or the other. It is imperative that the NSC’s rules of business are amended so it starts meeting monthly, if not more frequently. More important, the leadership must start according due importance to institutions rather than relying on informal channels.
One hopes that with the appointment of a full-time national security adviser, the NSC will be reinvigorated. While an activated NSC will greatly help the consultative process, the parliament and provincial legislatures and their committees of defence and home affairs should get their act together and start exercising effective oversight in the execution of the National Action Plan by the government.
