A file photo of Pakistani soldiers. PHOTO: fILE
Mian Nawaz Sharif has become the first prime minister in years to visit the ISI headquarters and this, in itself, is a bold initiative. It comes ahead of the all-parties conference, that will soon be called on national security, and Prime Minister Sharif and his team clearly hope the briefing they received will help them devise a strategy, which will be effective in improving the security nightmare we currently face.
Details of the meeting itself have not yet been revealed publicly. Both civilian and military officials say that the information is too sensitive to be put out openly.
However, we do know that Prime Minister Sharif, accompanied by a powerful PML-N team, which for unknown reasons, included Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as well, received a detailed account from the ISI Director General Lt-General Zaheerul Islam regarding various matters with key relevance to security and all that it involves.
The presence of Chief Minister Shahbaz at the session needs to be explained by the PML-N.
The general reports that are coming out of Islamabad following the unusual meeting suggest that things went well. Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was also present during the discussions held and, no doubt, contributed to them.
As a new national security policy is framed, this cooperation between the civilian set-up and the military establishment, as well as the agencies, is crucial to finding any solutions to militancy and terrorism in our country.
Only if a united front is forged, can this be defeated. We must hope that the first steps towards this have now been taken and a platform built on which a structure for future working can be set up, and an agreement reached on how best to proceed against the militias that have tried to seize control of our state and aspects of life within it.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2013.
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Pakistan defines itself as Punjab , again and again. Yet it holds on to the rest of Pakistan. This should cease to save the common man from ruin. But things seem to proceed from the point where they arrived at. The point they arrived at is Punjab. You may draw thousand inferences.
CM Punjab, in military terminology,is like better half of PM as such can not be left outside the team. Given the existing situation concept of National Security Team is the only solution until competent Civil Elite emerges and takes over the foreign and security matters.