Terming the NATO attack on Pakistani military a violation of international laws and Pakistan’s sovereignty, Civil-Military dialogue group of PILDAT Wednesday strongly condemned it and demanded a thorough probe into what appears to be an ‘unprovoked’ assault and aggression. While demanding the elected civilian leadership to provide guidelines for a befitting response to any such future incident, the group said parliamentary oversight over security was a fundamental requirement of the constitution of Pakistan.
Prominent among the group members were Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch MNA, Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi and Lt-Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider. The group which met in the capital reaffirmed the need to address imbalances in civil-military relations and said the entire arrangement of cooperation agreed with the US and ISAF be placed before the Parliament while the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence committees of the National Assembly and the Senate should hold serious debate on it.
The Parliament should also be informed of the circumstances under which and on which terms and conditions Shamsi Airbase was handed over to the US forces. The group members supported the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Defence to revisit and undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence.
However, the group reiterated its earlier position that the Cabinet Committee on Defence should be staffed with a dedicated permanent secretariat and think-tank to institutionalise and professionalise the civilian capacity on national security issues, as per pledges of PPP and PML-N under the Charter of Democracy.
