Pakistan’s National Security Committee, on Monday, approved the country’s first-ever national security policy 2022-2026 in a high-level huddle to ensure safety, security and dignity of the citizens.
The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan with federal ministers for foreign affairs, defense, information, interior, finance, human rights, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, all services chiefs, National Security Adviser and senior civil and military officers in attendance.
“The security of Pakistan rests in the security of its citizens,” the prime minister emphasized during the meeting while reposing confidence that Pakistan is well prepared to meet any internal and external threats.
Terming the policy’s formulation and approval a “historic moment,” the prime minister noted that the policy must guide all organs of the government to ensure that their efforts are synchronized with the overall direction of the strategy.
He instructed the National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf to present an implementation progress report to the national security committee every month.
The NSA briefed the participants on the salient features of the policy while highlighting that Pakistan was shifting to a Comprehensive National Security Framework whereby the “ultimate purpose of national security was to ensure the safety, security and dignity of the citizen of Pakistan.”
To ensure citizen-centric approach to security, the policy put economic security at the core, according to a press statement issued after the meeting.
“A stronger economy would create additional resources that would in turn be judiciously distributed to further bolster military and human security,” the NSA was quoted as saying in the meeting.
The statement said that participants of the meeting were informed that the policy had been created through a whole-of-government effort over the last seven years, and included extensive consultations among federal government institutions, with all provinces, and with the academia and private sector.
It was highlighted that a detailed implementation framework had been created through which the National Security Division would review progress in collaboration with relevant ministries and departments.
The national security policy will now be presented to the federal cabinet before being officially adopted, it said.
A public version of the document will be released in due course, the statement added.
