LAHORE: Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) on Wednesday launched its report on ‘State of Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan’, including the third year of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.
The report presented major developments that have impacted the state of civil-military relations in Pakistan from June 01, 2015-July 31, 2016, including the third year of the current federal government, which was elected into power in May 2013.
“As the federal government completed three years in the office, it appears as if the military leadership has established itself as the final arbiter on national security, with the elected government relegated to either an auxiliary role, or a parallel national security regime,” the report stated.
Although the mandate for final decisions on national security resides with the elected government, it is seen to be exercised by the military, as Pakistan moves further away from a constitutional equation on civil-military relations. A perception has persisted, especially after the 2014 dharna, that this authority was wrested away from the elected government, the period of June 2015-July 2016 has made evident that the situation remains unchanged.
The report claimed that perhaps the PML-N-led government’s biggest failure has been its inability to institutionalise a consultative decision-making process on national security despite the creation of the National Security Committee (NSC) in 2013 complete with a permanent secretariat. The third year of the current government shows that lack of institutionalisation of national security decision-making through the NSC has resulted in deterioration.
Since its creation, the NSC has only met six times till July 2016, with a dismal periodicity of six months, even though Pakistan has had more than its fair share of security-related challenges. In countries with far less serious national security crises, such as the United Kingdom, the prime minister chairs weekly meetings of the National Security Council, before the cabinet meeting.
In order to further compound this aversion to institutionalisation, the prime minister has instead chosen to interact directly with the chief of army staff, which has not only undermined the entire process of institutionalised consultation but also the office of the defence minister of as well as the national security advisors.
According to the report, the premier met the COAS 29 times while only two meetings of the NSC were held; 10 of these meetings (34% of the total times they met) were one-on-one interactions.
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif was present in only six of these meetings (21% of the total times the prime minister and the COAS met). On the other hand, the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister (before October 22, 2015, Sartaj Aziz, and then Lt Gen (r) Nasser Khan Janjua) was present in 10 of these meetings (34% of the total meetings held between the prime minister and the COAS)
Failure to formulate a comprehensive National Security Policy in three years in office; the policy was to be drafted by the National Security Division, under the guidance of the NSC.
The report asserted that the NSC requires certain reforms as well Pakistan’s NSC, unlike its equivalent institutions of national security councils the world over which are only consultative in nature, is defined as per its rules as the country’s ‘principal decision-making body on matters of national security’. This, decision-making power, as opposed to a consultative role, in our view, undercuts the authority of the federal cabinet and must be revised. If however, the government wishes to retain the decision-making status of the NSC, in our view, an Act of Parliament is required to regulate the workings of the NSC. This act should also set regular periodicity of NSC meetings to be at least once a month if not weekly. Linked to the above is the membership of the NSC, which has non-federal cabinet members as its full-time members, including Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and the three
services’ chiefs.
This composition is an anomaly both nationally and internationally where military commanders do not have membership positions but join NSC meetings upon invitations. Labelling the forum as the NSC of the cabinet, as the current government has done so with membership to non-cabinet members, is inappropriate in this respect. Perhaps another aspect requiring improvement is the infrequency of NSC meetings. As shared above, the prime minister and COAS have apparently preferred doing business through one-on-one meetings since Gen Raheel Sharif’s appointment in November 2013 till July 2016 (of a total of 99 meetings, 37 were held as one-on-one interactions versus 6 meetings of NSC in 3 years). It increasingly appears that official consultation and institutionalised decision-making at the officially designated forum is not a priority.