ISLAMABAD: General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), praised the country’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) 2022-2026 on Friday, saying it will assist safeguard Pakistan’s national security.
Prime Minister Imran Khan unveiled the public version of the strategy earlier in the day. “Inclusive development was unavoidable for national security,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif remarked at the NSP opening event in Islamabad.
The event was attended by federal ministers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, all service chiefs, ambassadors, and top civil and military personnel.
“Inclusive growth entails not just lifting the disadvantaged but also the underserved communities… In such a circumstance, every ordinary citizen becomes a shareholder in the protection of the state. “The greatest security is when people rally behind the state to protect it,” PM Imran continued.
“Any national security strategy must prioritise national cohesiveness and people’s prosperity while ensuring fundamental rights and social fairness without discrimination.”
The premier went on to say that if the country is to realise its inhabitants’ greatest potential, it must support delivery-based good government.
The prime minister, who had already signed the paper, praised the National Security Division for developing a strategy based on agreement and defining national security in the “correct way.”
While speaking to reporters informally on the occasion, General Qamar stated that military security is only one part of national security, and that the formation of a comprehensive strategy spanning all areas of national security is a “huge stride.”
According to the army commander, the paper would aid in sustaining Pakistan’s national security.
The Express Tribune previously stated that the new National Security Policy will emphasise peace with close neighbours and economic diplomacy as the core focus of the country’s foreign policy.
The original 100-page policy, which would be kept under wraps, leaves the door open for trade and business ties with India in the absence of a final settlement of the long-running Kashmir dispute, as long as progress is made in the talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, an official said in a background briefing to journalists on Tuesday.
“We do not want to be at odds with India for the next 100 years.” “The new strategy wants peace with near neighbours,” the official said, adding that if there is conversation and success, there is a prospect of normalising trade and economic relations with India, as in the past.
Relations between Pakistan and India have been at a stalemate since August 2019, when India removed the disputed territory’s special status. In response to the Indian move, Pakistan severed diplomatic ties and banned bilateral trade with India.
When the two parties agreed to reestablish the ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in February of last year, there was some hope for a breakthrough, but the process stalled.