The Federal government is all set to hold the Islamabad Security Dialogue, which being hailed as a ‘first of its kind’, aimed at promoting Prime Minister Imran Khan ‘s vision of peace, regional connectivity and development partnerships with the world. The initiative is being spearheaded by SAPM on National Security Development (NSD) Dr Moeed Yusuf, who has in the past made foreign policy statements that echo the United States’ anti-China narrative. The dialogue that will be opened by the PM tomorrow and will have COAS Gen Qamar Bajwa as chief guest the day after is structured to take policy recommendations on matters of national security from think tanks and relevant university research departments to ‘bridge the traditional gap between public intellectuals and policy makers’.
While there is no harm in taking input from intellectuals and experts on matters related to regional and national security, the final and most important platform to debate and discuss such crucial policies has to be parliament. Unfortunately the current regime gives little importance to the regular and conventional running of both houses unless it is absolutely crucial to its survival, which is when self-serving legislation is bulldozed through parliament. Pakistan faces a host of security challenges, not least of which is getting off the FATF grey list. Each consecutive review of our progress reveals inadequate focus and progress on implementation of anti-terror funding laws. There are various Standing Committees in both the National Assembly and Senate having representation from both sides of the aisle that are more than equipped to review the laws that have been hastily passed and provide recommendations to make them more robust, effective and meaningful. The event this week is a positive initiative to portray an image of Pakistan as a country focused on economic security, human welfare and protecting its territorial borders. It would be better however if it were supplemented with a genuine effort to engage parliament in matters of important policy making to give the effort legitimacy and credence.
