PRIME Minister Imran Khan Monday said that national security was more than just a matter of focusing on military might, emphasizing that national security was an all-encompassing thing with inclusive growth.
Addressing the opening session of the Margalla Dialogue’21 with the theme: ‘Breaking Past, Entering Future’, he said inequality in development and injustice become causes for violence by people and as such this is a major issue of national security that we should go for equitable and all-inclusive development.
It is universally recognized that no country can claim to be secure merely on the basis of military strength and, in fact, there are numerous instances in the world to prove that those who scaled the heights of economic progress and development are more secure and enjoy sovereign equality than many other military powers.
Unfortunately, Pakistan was forced to spend significantly on security and defence because of existential threats to the country and the issue of extremism and terrorism that has its roots somewhere else.
However, experience bears testimony to the fact that the country’s economic vulnerabilities are fully exploited by bilateral donors and multilateral institutions with serious implications for national security and sovereignty.
The PTI Government was surely striving hard to enable the country to stand on its own feet economically and hopefully the policies (which feel harsh and bitter today) would start yielding positive results in coming years.
Some measures have also been taken to bring backward areas to the national limelight but apparently this has been done at the cost of almost completely ignoring developmental needs of the big cities and towns where the bulk of the population lives.
It is also ironic that the Government has not been able to deliver on its commitment to reform the police and judicial system, an issue that has also been highlighted by the latest report of the Transparency International (TI), which has described police and judiciary as the most corrupt institutions in the country.
The Prime Minister definitely has a vision to make Pakistan a self-respecting state but a matching strategy is the need of the hour.
