Islamabad
A government representative on Wednesday hinted at the possibility of revisiting National Security Policy after opposition leaders called for a more focused policy that also addresses the underlying causes of political, economic, and social imbalance in the country.
They were participating in a dialogue hosted by Islamabad Policy Institute on the recently unveiled National Security Policy. Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Andleeb Abbas, while taking part in the discussion, said NSP was a living document and the government was open to reviewing it. “Policies are revisited and reviewed and constructive criticism would be welcomed,” she said adding that it had been prepared on the basis of government’s view point and valid ideas could still be incorporated.
Ms Abbas said it was a comprehensive document, but there was room for improvement in it. She emphasized its implementation and pointed out that some of the initiatives that the government had already taken were in line with its objectives.
Both Vice President PML-N and former foreign and defense minister Khurram Dastgir Khan and Secretary General Pakistan Peoples Party Mr. Farhatullah Babar criticized the policy for being too wordy but containing little substance.
Mr Dastgir said, “NSP was a hollow document that lacks legitimacy and consent from elected representatives, is devoid of a clearly defined implementation framework, and contradicts directly the conduct of foreign and security policies by the hybrid regime since 2018.” In this regard, he noted that NSP sets out defence of the nation’s sovereignty as a principal aim, but the government compromised country’s economic sovereignty by bulldozing the State Bank bill in the parliament.
He argued that if NSP’s claim of being “citizen-centric” was to be realized, then resource allocation must be rationalized by balancing defence spending and development. “If this does not happen, the policy is mere paper,” he maintained.
The former foreign minister felt that the Kashmir dispute was not adequately emphasized in the document and the ground situation in the occupied territory was not fully reflected. He said the document limited itself to just repeating the Foreign Office boilerplate and did not even demand a reversal of India’s actions on 5 August 2019.
Mr Babar, meanwhile, said NSP lacked input from the parliament, civil society and was neither inclusive nor participatory – a basic condition for a truly national policy. “It is an expression of pious hopes,
vague promises, and resting on borrowed clichés,” he added.
He regretted that much like the formulation of NSP without taking the parliament on board, the government had without any political consultations and debate drastically changed National Action Plan, though originally formed through consensus of the political leadership, and rendered NACTA dysfunctional.
NSP, he contended, claims “to leverage the symbiotic relationship between human security, economic security and military security,” but fails to recognize that human security also means protecting and enhancing human freedoms that are the essence of life.
He called for addressing the issues of institutional imbalance, inequitable resource distribution, non-state actors, the distorted ‘MILBUS’, and deliberate undermining of democratic institutions. He, therefore, suggested that the new national policy must make a clear admission of the failures of the past, of the need to “put own house in order” and start with a Truth Commission to chalk out the path.
