Staff Reporter
National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf termed economic security as the core of national security. He was speaking at an event to discuss the recently unveiled National Security Policy at the Institute of Regional Studies.
Dr Yusuf termed the NSP as an overarching policy document about the policy direction with regard to national security. In that context, he added, the policy prioritized the security of its citizens for ensuring national security. He added that if the inflow of resources was lower than their outflow, an average citizen of the country could not be secured. The focus of the NSP, according to the National Security Adviser, therefore, was on increasing the national resource pie and taking the discussion away from the guns versus butter debate.
Dr Yusuf maintained that ensuring economic security of the country was only possible through leveraging Pakistan’s geo-economic location for trade connectivity and developing true development partnerships with other countries of the world instead of looking for economic assistance.
Dr Yusuf admitted that the NSP had set high goals in a difficult regional security environment in which both of its western neighbours were internationally sanctioned while the eastern neighbour was unwilling to engage meaningfully. He added, however, that it was precisely the point of any policy to find a way out of any existing national and international constraints.
Earlier, in his welcome remarks, President IRS Ambassador Nadeem Riyaz stated that the NSP put the right amount of emphasis on the prioritization of economic and human security. He added that instead of diminishing the importance of conventional security, the NSP aimed to create a synergy between economic and conventional security.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that the NSP had provided a conceptual framework for the direction of the national security in days and years to come.
Former Defence Secretary and Minister Lt Gen (Retd) Naeem Lodhi said that when there was no codified national security policy, the criticism was not there but now with the unveiling of the NSP there was criticism.
