Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, on 14 January, launched the country’s first-ever National Security Policy, which articulates a citizen-centric framework, placing economic security at its core unlike the previous one-dimensional security policy where the focus was on the military.
The main themes of the National Security Policy are national cohesion, securing an economic future, defence and territorial integrity, internal security, foreign policy in a changing world and human security.
The original version of the policy will remain classified. Unveiling the public version of the policy, which was separately endorsed by the National Security Committee and the Cabinet last month, Prime Minister Khan said that the previous governments had failed to strengthen Pakistan’s economy.
The national security has been clearly explained in the new original 100-page document, he said, adding that the policy articulates a citizen-centric framework, placing economic security at its core and seeking a secure and economically resilient Pakistan.
Khan said that Pakistan, since its evolution, has had a one-dimensional security policy where the focus was on the military. “For the first time, the National Security Division has developed a consensus document which defines national security in a proper way,” he added.
The powerful army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 70 plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy.
The five-year-policy document covering a period between 2022-26, is being propped up by the Khan government as the country’s first-ever strategy paper of its kind that spells out the national security vision and guidelines for the attainment of those goals.
“We need to realise that our biggest security is when the people become stakeholders and stand up for the country. And this can be achieved through inclusive growth. We need to develop as a nation, not in sections, Khan said.
Earlier, National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf said that Pakistan, under the new policy, will be shifting to a Comprehensive National Security Framework with the aim of ensuring the safety, security, and dignity of the citizens of Pakistan. “The policy puts economic security at the core. A stronger economy would create additional resources which would then be distributed to further bolster military and human security, he said.
The report in the Express Tribune, quoting the Pak NSA, said the policy places the Jammu and Kashmir issue as the core of the bilateral relationship. When asked about the message it sends to India, Yusuf said: it tells India to do the right thing and jump on the bandwagon to benefit from regional connectivity to uplift our peoples. It also tells India, if you don’t want to do the right thing, it will be a loss to the entire region, but most of all India.
Peace with immediate neighbours and economic diplomacy will be the central theme of Pakistan’s foreign policy in the new National Security Policy, the newspaper reported.
Hindutva and Kashmir
There is the mention of ‘Hindutva politics’, which needs hostility to Pakistan as the centre-point of India’s internal politics. There is also a fear expressed that an India driven by this ideology could try enforcing one-sided solutions. Or warfare could break out, whether conventional or, interestingly, of the ‘no-contact’ variety.
On the foreign front, the new policy highlights disinformation, Hindutva, and the use of aggression for domestic political gains as key threats from India, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Pakistan has blamed “Indias hegemonic designs” and the “unresolved Kashmir dispute” for the strained bilateral ties. In its first ever National Security Policy, Pakistan said: “Towards the immediate east, bilateral ties have been stymied as a consequence of the unresolved Kashmir dispute and India’s hegemonic designs”.
Jammu and Kashmir finds only a small mention in the document which runs into 48 pages. “A just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains a vital national security interest for Pakistan. India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 2019 have been rejected by the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
“Indian occupation forces continue to undertake human rights abuses and oppression through war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts in IIOJK. In addition, India continues to create false propaganda around the Kashmiri resistance to hide its illegal actions.
“Pakistan remains steadfast in its moral, diplomatic, political, and legal support to the people of Kashmir until they achieve their right to self-determination guaranteed by the international community as per UN Security Council resolutions,” the document said.
India’s Position
India has told Pakistan that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.
During the first term of Narendra Modi in 2014, the relations took a positive turn when he announced his intentions to have cordial relations with Pakistan. He had also visited Islamabad in 2015 unannounced to attend a marriage ceremony in Sharif’s family.
However, the relations between the two countries turned south following the horrific 2016 Uri attacks in which four terrorists launched grenade attacks on Indian Army soldiers in the Indian’s Jammu and Kashmir on 18 September. The attack killed 19 soldiers and injured 19–30 others. It was reported as “the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades”. Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the planning and execution of the attack.
Comments
Kashmir merits only 113 words and is among the smaller segments in this plan document is curious. There is no demand for the reversal of the 5 August 2019 changes made by India in the status of Jammu & Kashmir.
The emphasis is on the economy being main bedrock of national security. Pakistan is hurting economically, with internal instability and global indifference. It is involved in humiliating negotiations with the IMF for further disbursals from the sanctioned loan. Pakistan’s 11th since 1993.
Recently Imran Khan said that Pakistan’s economy was in a better place than India’s! At the same time it has asked for the IMF Board meeting to be deferred to the end of this month, as it weighs the risks in losing this bailout or raising prices of goods, utilities, taxes, and passing a new law guaranteeing the autonomy of its central bank.
This emphasis on the economy, internal stability, threat from sectarian strife and internal separatist movements underlines a much more inward-looking Pakistan than we have seen for three decades.
An assessmento fhte world situation covers Afghanistan, China, India and ends with Iran. All others are covered under ‘Rest of the World’. The US features under Rest of the World.
On America, it says Pakistan does not subscribe to “camp politics”. Considering that Pajistan was once a member of multi-national military-strategic alliances with the US, and are still treaty-bound security allies, it is acutely aware that US President Jowe Biden is only showing indifference to Pakistan.
Pakistan is hurting, looking inwards, and realises it has lost global stature and friendship with the US.
