 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 25, 1969; 56 years ago (1969-03-25)[1] |
| Headquarters | Prime Minister's Office |
| Agency executives | |
| Parent agency | Prime Minister's Office |
TheNational Security Committee (Urdu:قومی سلامتی مجلس) (reporting name:NSC) is a federal institutional and consultative body chaired by theprime minister of Pakistan as its chairman. The NSC is a principal forum that is mandated for consideringnational security andforeign policy matters with the senior national security advisers and Cabinet ministers.[1] The idea and inception of National Security Council was first conceived in 1969 under thePresidentYahya Khan, its functions were to advise and assist the president and prime minister on national security and foreign policies.
The National Security Council was re-created by then-President and formerGeneral Pervez Musharraf in April 2004 under the National Security Council Act. Although, the NSC remains to as a statutory body, the National Security Council is not active since2008, and theCabinet Committee on National Security is fulfilling the role and purpose of the NSC.[2] The first National Security Adviser was Tariq Aziz who was appointed in 2004 and was preceded byMajor-General (retired)Mahmud Durrani in 2008.[2] Since Durrani's deposing by Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gillani in 2009, there has been no appointed new NSC adviser since then.[2] The NSC was abandoned by the government ofPakistan Peoples Party (PPP), with a unified confirmations from theParliament, and its functions has been taken under control by the Defence Cabinet Committee as of 2009.[1]
The council was revived under Nawaz Sharif, who presides over meetings of the council when there is an emergency, such as hostilities betweenIndia and Pakistan, or a chance to discuss events related to the insurgency.[3][4]
TheConstitution of Pakistan in the past provided for the National Security Council. However, the provision was repealed by the18th Amendment.
The membership position does not depend on the will of the chairman, who is the electedPrime Minister of Pakistan.[5] Depending on the agenda of the meeting, other concerned persons are also invited in the meeting of the NSC.[5]
| Ex-Officio members and permanent officials | Public office and Statutory |
|---|---|
| Chairman of the National Security Committee | Prime Minister ofPakistan |
| Secretary | Secretary, National Security Division |
| Advisor | National Security Advisor |
| Military Advisor | Chief of Defence Forces (Pakistan) |
| Statutory Attendees | Minister of Defence Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Interior Minister of Finance and Revenue Minister of Information and Broadcasting |
| Military Attendees | Chief of Army Staff Chief of Air Staff Chief of Navy Staff |
| Additional attendees | Secretary, Cabinet Division |
The usual cabinet-level meetings at the NSC takes the following agenda and members of the following authorities are usually invited:
Current
Former
The Council serves as a forum for consultation for the president and the federal government on matters of national security including the sovereignty, integrity, defence and security of the State and crisis management in general. It may also formulate recommendations to the president and the federal government in such matters.
| No | Name | Term of Office | Previous service cadre | Prime Minister | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Major-General Ghulam Omar[7] | 25 March 1969 | 20 December 1971 | Inter-Services Selection Branch | Nurul Amin |
| 2 | GeneralTikka Khan[8] | 3 March 1972 | 1 March 1976 | Inter-Services Selection Branch | Zulfikar Ali Bhutto |
| 3 | Major-GeneralRao Farman Ali[8] | 29 March 1985 | 17 August 1988 | Inter-Services Selection Branch | Muhammad Khan Junejo |
| 4 | Tariq Aziz[9] | 4 April 2004 | 18 August 2008 | Central Superior Services | Shaukat Aziz Yousaf Raza Gillani |
| 5 | Major-GeneralMahmud Ali Durrani | 19 August 2008 | 7 January 2009 | Inter-Services Selection Branch | Yousaf Raza Gillani |
| 6 | Sartaj Aziz[10] | 7 July 2013 | 22 October 2015 | Central Superior Services | Nawaz Sharif |
| 7 | Lieutenant-GeneralNasser Khan Janjua[11] | 23 October 2015 | 27 June 2018 | Inter-Services Selection Branch | Nawaz Sharif |
| 8 | Moeed Yusuf | 24 December 2019 | 10 April 2022 | — | Imran Khan |
| 9 | Asim Malik | 30 April 2025 | Incumbent | Inter-Services Selection Branch | Shehbaz Sharif |
ThePakistan military has been sending many recommendations for the establishment of the National Security Council as akin and counterpart to theAmerican National Security Council.[1] A comprehensive report on NSC was written and submitted by theChief of Naval Staff,Vice AdmiralS.M. Ahsan in 1968.[1] Admiral Ahsan submitted his handwritten report to President Yahya Khan's staff inIslamabad in 1969 and emphasized support for the establishment of the military dominated national security council composed of senior civil and military officials who would advise the government on national security issues and propose strategies to overcome the challenges involving theforeign policy matters.[1] The proposal was forwarded toPresident Office, and then to President Yahya Khan with strong recommendations for its approval.[1]
In 1969,PresidentYahya Khan established the National Security Council, after signing and issuing the presidential decree to establish this consultative institution.Major-General Ghulam Omar was appointed NSC's first secretary and was posted at theGeneral Headquarters (GHQ) to perform operations of NSC under President Yahya Khan.[1] The NSC secretariat was part of thePresident Office and theChief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) and was directly under the control of the military establishment which then-functioned under President Yahya Khan's staff.[1]
The NSC secretariat was highly unpopular in public and political circles of Pakistan, and it quickly gained notoriety incivil society due to its involvement in political and civilian affairs.[1] The NSC secretariat did not figure in the decision-making of the military government because President Yahya Khan ran his government administration as personalized enterprise relaying heavily on his close and trusted military and bureaucratic advisers.[1] The NSC Secretary, Major-General Ghulam Omar, was less focused on national issues whilst kept his interest in combat development. The NSC Secretariat under Yahya Khan was only a paper organization.[1]
| Participants in debates | Cadre/Office | Vote | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nawaz Sharif[12] | Prime Minister |  Y | Voted and Ordered tests |
| Sartaj Aziz[12] | Finance Minister |  N | Opposed but later retraced. |
| Mushahid Hussain[13] | Information Minister | Y | First to propose in favor of tests |
| Gohar Ayub | Foreign Minister | Y | |
| Ishaq Dar[14] | Commerce Minister | Y | Support in favor of tests |
| Shamshad Ahmad[12] | Foreign Secretary | Y | |
| GenJehangir Karamat[12] | Chairman Joint Chiefs Chief of army staff | Y | Spoke in favor but left decision on Sharif |
| Adm.Fasih Bokhari[15] | Chief of Naval Staff | N | Opposed tests on moral ground |
| ACMPQ Mehdi[12] | Chief of Air Staff | Y | Supported and provide logistics[16] |
| Dr.Abdul Qadeer Khan[12] | Senior scientist atKRL | Y | Debated and proposed tests |
| Dr.Ishfaq Ahmad[12] | Senior scientist atPAEC | Y | Supported in favor tests |
| Dr.Samar Mubarakmand[12] | Senior scientist atPAEC | Y | Debated in favor of tests |
| Munir Ahmad Khan[12] | Senior scientist atPAEC | Y | Debated in favor of tests |
| Ahmad Kamal[17] | Representative to UN | Y | Diplomatic in favor of tests |
| Javed Hashmi: 128–129 [18] | Environmental Minister | Y | Debated in favor of tests |
The concept of National Security Council as a bridge of stabilizing thecivil-military relations has always been favoured by themilitary spectrum of Pakistan since 1971.[2] In 1973, Pakistan military has sent repeated recommendations of peculiar structure of the NSC in which senior military commanders ofPakistan Armed Forces are ensured a seat at the table.[2] The proposal was met with heated criticism in thestate parliament andPrime MinisterZulfikar Ali Bhutto instead issued awhite paper on Higher Defence Organisations (HDO) in May 1976, outliningthe institutional arrangements for dealing with defence and security affairs. This led the ultimate creation of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) which has the mandate of responsibility of national defence rested with the prime minister. The DCC conveys matters to other important organisations involved in the national security decision-making on security affairs included theMinistry of Defence (MoD), theJS HQ of theJoint Chiefs of Staff Committee and itsChairman, the Chiefs of Staff of thePakistan Armed Forces.[2]
After the enactment of themartial law bychief of army staff GeneralZia-ul-Haq in 1977, the DCC had remained active. After holding successfulreferendum, followed by non-partisangeneral elections in 1985,President GeneralZia-ul-Haq authored and insertedArticle 152-A to theConstitution through the Revival of the Constitution Order (RCO), in March 1985.[2] This led the establish a National Security Council for accommodating the high-ranking military leadership in policy making.[2] The NSC was empowered to "make recommendations relating to the issue of a Proclamation of Emergency under Article 232, security of Pakistan and any other matter of national importance that may be referred to it by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister."[2]
The NSC was opposed by most political circles and it had to be dropped as a part of the deal with the Parliament to get the parliamentary approval for the revised version of the Revival of the Constitution Order (RCO) asEighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, in October 1985.[2] The NSC was dissolved byPrime MinisterBenazir Bhutto in 1993 and reactivated the DCC operationalize in its place.[2]
From 1998–99, there were only two NSC meetings took place which were chaired by the Prime Minister Sharif; first occasion when Sharif ordered Pakistan'snuclear tests in response toIndia'stests, as part of histit-for-tat policy.[19] At the NSCcabinet meeting, the Pakistani government, military, scientific, and civilian officials were participating in a debate,broadening, and complicating thedecision-making process.[19] Although, General Karamat debated towards presenting thenational security and military point of view, the final decision was left onPrime MinisterNawaz Sharif's say.[19] After the decision was made, General Karamat was notified ofPrime MinisterNawaz Sharif's decision and asked the military to be stand-by orders. After providing the joint military logistics, the nuclear tests were eventually carried out on 28 May 1998, asChagai-I, and on 30 May 1998 as codename:Chagai-II.[20] As dawn broke over the Chagai mountains, Pakistan became the world's seventh nuclear power.[21]
Secondly, the NSC meeting took place during the heights of theKargil War in 1999. Empowerment of the NSC at the bureaucratic level was the primary issue that led to the forcedrelieve ofChairman Joint Chiefs GeneralJehangir Karamat in 1998.[22] In an absence of the forum, the upheavals incivil–military relations led to thedismissal ofPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 when he tried to dismissed then-Chairman Joint ChiefsPervez Musharraf.[23]
After staging acoup d'état against the government ofPrime MinisterNawaz Sharif in 1999,Chairman joint chiefsPervez Musharraf announced the establishment of six member national security council in his first television speech. Through a presidential act, the concept of NSC was formally established under an order of the chief executive on 30 October 1999.[25] The presidential order also led the establishment of theNational Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) as a think tank.[2] Although NRB gained quick constitutional establishment in 2000 the NSC's constitutional establishment did not really take off due to political consensus over the establishment of this institution. Finally in 2004,Prime MinisterShaukat Aziz presented the National Security Council through an Act of Parliament and succeeded in constitutionally establishing the NSC for the first time in April 2004. Originally the NSC bill proposed that the NSC would also deal with the "matters relating to democracy, governance, and inter-provincial harmony."[2] This sentence was later controversially replaced by President Musharraf with "crisis management" without explaining its operational.[2]President andChief of Army StaffGeneral Pervez Musharraf created the office inAiwan-e-Sadr, and appoint civil bureaucrat Tariq Aziz as the first National Security Advisor.[2] According to PILDT, since its reestablishment, Musharraf conveyed very few national security meetings, and most meetings were conducted to discuss political situations only.
He resigned from the post of NSC secretariat when Musharraf resigned from presidency on 18 August 2008. He was succeeded byMahmud Ali Durrani as the second National Security Advisor, directly reporting to the Prime minister Secretariat. Durrani was notably deposed by theprime ministerYousaf Raza Gillani in January 2009 for "not consulting the Prime Minister while giving statements on foreign relation matters". The matter in question was the acceptance by the Government of Pakistan of the Pakistani nationality of the sole surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and was in the custody of the Mumbai police.
After the incident, Prime Minister Gillani vowed to abolish the National Security Council in February 2009.[2] The NSC remains to stay as statue on theconstitution, however, the NSC secretariat is not active since2008, but instead theDefence Committee of the Cabinet is re-activated in its place by the current government.[2]
Since 2009, there has been no appointed new NSC adviser and no national security meetings have been conducted since then.[2] Its operations and mandate has been integrated to the DCC meeting, nine occurring since 2009.[2]
Upon conclusion of thegeneral elections in 2013, thePML(N)'s strategists indicated the restoration of the NSC to thenews media. On immediate basis, Prime Minister Sharif appointedSartaj Aziz asNational Security Advisor (NSA).[26] On 9 September 2013, Prime Minister Sharif proposed that dialogue with thePakistani military would create acivil-military partnership, putting the military and an elected government on the same page for the first time inPakistan's history.[27] After reconstituting theCabinet Committee on National Security (C2NS), withmilitary gaining representation in the country's politics, the NSC came into effect as an influential policy institution.[28]
Decision came fromPrime MinisterSharif to reconstitute the NSC to improvecoordination between the civil and military institutions in order to deal with a naggingfar-right insurgency that has killed and maimed thousands of Pakistanis over the last few years.[10]
According to thepolitical scientist andcivic-military relations expert, Aqil Shah, Sharif finally did what exactly formerchairman joint chiefsGeneral Karamat had called for in 1998.[28] Since then, the NSC meetings with Prime Minister Sharif have been taking place frequently.[3]
Jehangir Karamat National Security Council.
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