Debate on security policy marked by woeful ignorance

Govt has decided to take full command and control of things strategic and cutting across the party divide.

Through the two-week session of the National Assembly that ended on Friday, the third Nawaz government wanted to communicate a clear message to the world: It has decided  to take full command and control of things strategic and cutting across the party divide, all parties represented in a directly elected house firmly stood by it in this regard. Thanks to its self-centric conduct, however, the government just failed to achieve the said objective.

After building hopes with calculated leaks, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did succeed in exciting the media regarding the National Internal Security Policy (NISP). Nawaz Sharif hates attending national assembly sittings, but he especially came to the house last Thursday when the interior minister introduced a 100-page document. Our representatives had three full days to scan the proposed NISC before formally discussing the same in the assembly. Not a person from amongst them appeared to have done any homework.

After tabling NISC, the PML-N itself went into take-it-or-leave it mode. Ruling parties in this country are addicted to such arrogant behavior for sure. What went wrong with the opposition remains the question, though, and I fail to find any satisfactory answer.

When heading the opposition in the 1990s, Ms Benazir Bhutto would always initiate parliamentary discussions on substantive issues. Before taking the floor, she used to vet the related documents far too avidly and would then hold extensive brainstorming sessions with journalists and experts. The current leader of the opposition, Syed Khurshid Shah, remained recklessly indifferent in this context. He had even not cared coming to the house when it started the general discussion on NISP.

Ms Shazia Marri, a youthful PPP backbencher, proved the one and only from the opposition who appeared to have done some homework before taking the floor on Thursday. But this ‘junior’ only had 10 minutes to deliver a fierce but focused speech.

Imran Khan and his PTI never stop boasting about their radical wisdom when it comes to imagining workable alternatives to restore peace and stability in Pakistan. To keep Imran Khan on board, Nawaz Sharif had even gone an extra mile by arranging his one-on-one meeting with General Kayani in September 2013. Yet the same Imran Khan preferred staying aloof from all the hype related to NISP.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi had been a hands-on type foreign minister during the initial two years of the previous government. After quitting for stirring a huge controversy related to Raymond Davis affair, he had joined the PTI. Since the early 1990s, he also has remained in great demand on seminar-circuit. As a powerful deputy of Imran Khan, he could have articulated his party’s position on multiple issues related to national security. He remained mostly absent and the sole burden of speaking for the PTI was passed on to Dr Shirin Mazari. Although an accomplished academic with many-year experience of teaching and writing on defence and strategic affairs, Dr Mazari sounded clueless when given the floor to discuss NISP two days ago.

Don’t blame Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, therefore, if he opted to wind up the general discussion on his proposed policy by making a concluding speech late Thursday evening. But instead of concentrating on NISP, the interior minister preferred to discuss some “initial findings” related to the attack on Islamabad courts Monday morning and doing so created a new controversy. Khurshid Shah took full advantage of his apparent slip and so did Raza Rabbani in the senate.

Both the PPP leaders kept drumming the spin that Chaudhry Nisar had heartlessly tried to “dilute the frightening impact” of the Monday incident by ‘diverting’ our attention to a police report that suggested as if an additional session judge had not been “killed by terrorists on Monday.” One of his guards pulled the trigger of his own gun in panic and bullets from it pierced the chest of the judge.

The crafty Shah from Sukkur and articulate Raza Rabbani failed to appreciate that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan felt the need to vending these “initial findings” with a definite objective. During panicky moments of the Monday incident, most journalists and lawyers had instantly presumed that the judge, Riffat Awan, was the main target on that day, for he had refused to entertain applications filed to get General Musharraf booked under murder charges.

Taking advantage of this popular perception, Musharraf’s lawyers have been working overtime to elude his personal attendance before the special court. The real objective of Nisar was to scuttle the grounds of their plea. Nisar being Nisar could not spin and sell the story, however, and in the process did say things that even his ardent friends and admirers would not be able to defend.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2014.