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ISLAMABAD: The National Security Council (NSC) approved on Monday the country’s first-ever national security policy, which will be presented before the Federal Cabinet today.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced through his official Twitter handle that the first codified security policy was approved in the NSC meeting held in Islamabad today. A day earlier, the government spokesperson said that the national security policy draft would be presented before the NSC for approval. If approved, the country will have the first-ever national security policy in a documented form since its inception as it hasn’t been codified in the last 70 years.
The draft puts economic and military security at the core of policy and outlines the challenges and opportunities facing Pakistan in the coming years. In addition, it would provide policy guidelines for mitigation and actualising opportunities through a “whole-of-government approach”.
Apart from the economic and military issues, the draft sheds light on the country’s water security as well as population growth, terrorism and foreign policy, particularly concerning the Kashmir and Afghan issues and relations with other countries in the region and beyond.
The NSC is a principal forum mandated for considering national security and foreign policy matters with the senior national security advisers and cabinet ministers.
On December 6, the National Security Advisor (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf had presented the draft of the policy before the Parliamentary Committee on National Security amid opposition parties’ boycott of the meeting. The NSA had told the attendees of the meeting that the draft was a result of the consultations with the stakeholders for the last seven years, adding it could be reviewed each year to keep it abreast with policy priorities in a fast-changing global environment.
During the briefing, the NSA had briefed the parliamentarians sans opposition members the details of the policy, saying the policy was designed to leverage the symbiotic relationship between human security, economic security and military security with the prosperity and safety of citizens as its principal focus.
Moeed had said that it endeavours to put economic security at the core of policy priorities to expand the national resource pie for greater investments in human and military security.
He said that the process of consultations with stakeholders for the formulation of the National Security Policy was initiated in 2014 after the establishment of the National Security Division.–Agencies
