- Parliament rather than NSC is the forum to fix them
For four years the PML-N government didn’t recognise the urgency of a debate on issues like civil-military relations, role of judiciary and the accountability of all institutions. The PML-N in fact made use of civil-military divide and judiciary-executive tensions to bring down PPP governments, most glaringly during the tenure of PM Yousuf Raza Gilani. The understanding formulated in Charter of Democracy was not implemented. All PML-N leaders who are screaming blue murder kept mum over the issues during the first four years of the party’s present tenure. While Durrani and Dulat’s “Spy Chronicles” was published recently, books by Musharraf and Shahid Aziz were available in the market years back. Why didn’t Nawaz Sharif form an enquiry commission under the Pakistan Inquiry Commission Act when he was still the prime minister?
The fact is that all the issues enumerated by PM Abbasi have existed over the last many decades. Civilian governments have been overthrown in three military coups while the army has maintained hold over foreign and security policies even during the tenures of most of the elected governments. The Supreme Court under strong CJs has overindulged in judicial activism. Some of the rulings of the overzealous courts caused major economic losses. But the judiciary in certain cases cannot afford to ignore the civilian governments’ inaction or illegal actions and has to intervene to undo the injustice to the common man. While the country needs strong accountability institutions, it has to be ensured that these do not transcend well-defined limits. Treating certain institutions and departments as holy cows would lead to demand by others to be treated likewise. Security agencies too need to be given charters that delineate in clear terms their scope and limitations.
The National Security Committee cannot fix the issues. It is for the next government to get them thrashed out in parliamentary committees after seeking inputs from the army, judiciary, security agencies and accountability bodies. Let the parliament take its time as it did before passing the historic 18th amendment and come out with a national policy bolstered by necessary constitutional amendments.
