Pakistan has made important strides on the road to establish democratic and parliamentary oversight on defence and national security but there remains a long and arduous struggle for establishing a constitutional equation of civil-military relations, believed experts and members of parliament, analysts and media representatives at the PILDAT public forum on democratic oversight of defence and national security: an account of four years. The initiative has to be taken by the parliament with the support of citizens and media.
Speakers at the forum included Jang Bureau Chief Hafiz Tahir Khalil, PML Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Spokesman President of Pakistan Senator Farhatullah Babar and Chairman Parliamentary Committee on National Security Senator Mian Raza Rabbani.
Hafiz Tahir Khalil said while other committees of the parliament are generally open for media coverage, regrettably defence committees mostly hold in-camera meetings. He demanded that this should change barring sensitive security issues.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said Pakistan had, for the first time, given an institutional response to Pak-US relations. This has defined new rules of the game that the parliament would discuss and approve.
Looking ahead, he recommended that the concept of national security must be re-defined from a security-specific definition to include important civilian components such as constitution, parliament, political parties, judiciary, education, food and energy.
He praised the work of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) and recommended that the committee must be institutionalised. Working to define a comprehensive national security strategy of Pakistan for every two years should be a major area of focus of the PCNS. Defence purchases and defence equipment should also be part of this strategy.
Senator Farhatullah Babar praised the efforts of PILDAT for not only consistently raising the taboo subject of fixing the imbalance in civil-military relations in Pakistan but also for presenting its periodic assessments and studies and holding public forums on this taboo issue. Addressing the civil-military imbalance is a dangerous initiative, he said.
He said PILDAT must also study how power had gradually moved from parliament to and civil governments to military and military dictators. He said the coalition government had taken the initiative of presenting details of the defence budget since 2008 and it was now responsibility of MPs who should come prepared to review this thoroughly and raise irrefutable points and suggestions.
Senator Raza Rabbani said he did not share the optimism of other speakers that Pakistan was moving towards changing civil-military relations according to the constitution. The changes that are apparent are cosmetic and due to regional and international scenario. The apparent “progress” is just to let off steam for the moment, he said.
Senator Rabbani said that fixing the civil-military imbalance was not an easy task and it requires a change in mindset. With just a change in the situation, we should not assume that we had changed the mindset. Important developments have taken place since March 2008. Military leadership has been called at the bar of the parliament not just for briefing but for a grueling question and answer session as well.
He said just because he was pessimistic, it did not mean he was without hope. The recommendations of the PCNS presented to the parliament on March 20, 2012, mark a milestone in Pakistan’s parliamentary history signifying that foreign policy, which had been considered a domain of civil and military bureaucracy, now had a collective parliamentary ownership. These recommendations are open for debate and must be improved.
In his opening remarks, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob said that PILDAT had set a tradition of reviewing the performance of various government and parliamentary forums on democratic and parliamentary oversight of defence and national security. Evaluating the performance, Mehboob said the defence committee of the cabinet (DCC) signifies the supremacy of elected civilian leaders in interpreting national interests and in laying down the broad parameters of defence and foreign policy. However, despite serious internal and external security challenges facing Pakistan from March 2008 to March 2012, the DCC had met on an average a little more than twice in a year.