CCNS must be made dynamic
Whether it is a revival of the Musharraf-era National Security Council (NSC) or an enhanced version of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) with an extended scope is not indeed that significant to enter into hair-splitting. While some observers maintain that the NSC stands revived in the form of the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS), some other analysts insist that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has had his way with the cabinet holding sway though the three armed serves chiefs do serve on the committee. Without debating the fine points of distinction – whether the establishment’s ambition to browbeat the elected dispensation has been achieved by a place on the national security’s high table or whether the prime minister has been able to dig his heels in as was his wont in his previous avatars and resist the Rawalpindi’s favoured panacea, the NSC, which since Musharraf’s departure in 2008 had been in a state of limbo – one needs to move on. The essence of the matter lies in the fact that a high-level Committee is finally in place with the intent to play a decisive role in taming the twin monsters threatening the very existence of the state: the internal security challenges that has bled us incessantly and profusely for the last 10 years and the eternal threat from our neighbour on the east that refuses to be placated despite incessant avowals of good intent from our end. That is apart from the dangers this nation faces from the complex, uncertain and troubled landscape of Afghanistan. Such multiple potent threats – some of these created by our own ill-advised masters of the past and present – indeed would test the most well-resourced of the security establishments anywhere in the world. No wonder then that the guardians of our security have been found seriously wanting – hence the raison d’etre of CCNS as a national response.
The CCNS’ – headed by the PM with cabinet members on foreign affairs, defence, interior and finance, the three services chiefs and the chairman JCSC its members – objective is articulated as: “to focus on the national security agenda and formulating a policy as the guiding framework for key subsidiary policies on defence, foreign and internal security”. The first meeting of the CCNS made all the right noises: “Pakistan would contribute to the impetus of peace and prosperity in the region… shall fully support the international community’s efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan”. It also “strongly condemned 240 violation of the ceasefire agreement on the LoC [by India]”, but the response was: “all possible channels must be used to halt ceasefire violations” with emphasis on preferring “dialogue to settle all outstanding issues with India”. The landmark decision though was “not to hold any dialogue with homegrown extremists unless they renounced violence and surrendered their weapons” with the government vowing to fight those refusing to lay down their arms to the bitter end.
Keeping the CCNS’ high profile one cannot expect it meet every other day. This cries for the setting up of a permanent, dynamic body comprising security analysts drawn from the pool of civil and military experts, the agencies as well as academia to help the Committee formulate policies for implementation – with an ever vigilant eye on execution and preemption.
