Daily Times

Pakistan’s first ever National Security Policy (NSP)’s public version, which is a classified document approved by the National Security Council and the federal cabinet, would be launched on January 14 (Friday).

The aim of launching public version was intended to open up debate for enhanced national consensus and understanding of the policy that set a new paradigm shift in the policy of the country to ensure national security, the security sources told APP while elaborating the elements of newly approved NSP.

The official said that the country lacked any umbrella document like NSP explaining the National Security as prior to it there were several policies of internal security, defence modernisation, and food security that did not elaborate the subject in detail.

The approved NPS, he said, presented a comprehensive definition of the national security that was based on a citizen centric approach protecting the dis empowered weak citizen of the state. He informed that this policy focused overall aspects of national security and Under the Prime Minister’s leadership it has been codified that economic security would be the core of the Policy. “Strong economy would ensure more spending on military and human security,” he added.

He said that the NSP formulation process was officially started as per the demand of the government in 2014 under the then National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz. However, the process was first initiated in 1998 but the office of National Security Division did not exist at that time, therefore the process faced red tape hiccups in getting it finalised. The official informed that the National Security Division worked extensively during the past seven years on the NSP. “Policy formulation is the sole prerogative of the executive and the parliament has no role in it whereas in the case of NSP the National Security Council is the prior forum,” he underscored.

The NSP would be reviewed every year and the process would also be repeated after successive transition of any government, he added. He told that the NSP was an umbrella document that would inform about the intent and future direction of the country. “As the policy is classified and only 150 pages of the entire document will be made public that will present the gist of the Policy,” he said.

He underlined that for external initiatives the Policy’s objective was ‘Peace’. “Search of peace in the neighborhood and all other countries,” he added. Under the NSP, for National cohesion, the country has identified the most important aspect of its cultural and ethnic diversity, where the national unity should be built around it. All aspects of diversity would be taken along with other elements of NSP, he elaborated. Moreover, human security aspects of NSP had core focus on population followed by health security, climate and water, food security and gender. As far as the economic security was concerned, he said this policy made due discussion on it.

Pakistan’s growth in producing quality human resource that would have ultimate impact on economy at the local level was also discussed under the chapter of economic security. To a question, he told that since 2014, over 600 Pakistani experts hailing from academia, universities’ students and private sector were engaged who provided their key input for creating NSP. The NSP has the ownership of NSC where civil military leadership sits together and a complete implementation plan was being prepared for implementation, he said. The National Security Division would give monthly update to NSC on implementation of NSP, he concluded.