National Security Council: The root of the conflict? Explained in numbers

The central concept behind the creation of the National Security Council (NSC) was to institutionalise decision-making on national security issues in Pakistan between the civilian leadership and the military.

The NSC was formed, along with a dedicated secretariat of the National Security Division, in 2013, to fill the huge void that existed in policy-making. Earlier, although the Cabinet Committee on Defence had existed, perspectives of the security sector were delivered through un-institutionalised and one-on-one interactions between elected premiers and successive military commanders.

As Pakistan has continued to face myriad security challenges and is often called a security state, the NSC was especially crucial in Pakistan to formalise irregular and personalised interactions into formal and regular presentation of policy advise and its consideration for national decision-making.

Notwithstanding facing a host of security issues and a wide gulf between the policy positions of the military and elected civilian governments, weekly or even quarterly meetings of the NSC have not been convened since 2013.

Instead, civilian elected Prime Ministers have not resisted the temptation to manage relations through personal interactions.

While only four meetings of the NSC were convened by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in the eight months he was in office during the fourth year, he held 10 one-on-one meetings with the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) during this time. Even the defence minister, the civilian boss of the defence sector, was not present at those meetings.

During these eight months, there were also 18 joint interactions between Khan and COAS. Of these 28 interactions, former defence minister Pervaiz Khattak was present in eight meetings (28.57 per cent).

In his entire tenure of three years and eight months, Khan held 32 one-on-one meetings with the Army Chief without the presence of the defence minister.

Source: Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency