As part of our work on governing inter-institutional relations within the ambit of the Constitution of Pakistan, PILDAT, advised by an eminent group of experts and former civil and military officials since 2004, contributed to the setting up of the National Security Committee (NSC) with an independent secretariat in 2013. We believe that the NSC provides a necessary forum of consultation not just on our critical national security issues, it is also an ideal forum of dialogue on issues relating to civil-military relations which may affect Pakistan’s democratic governance. A section of experts believe that without effective and regular utilisation of the NSC by successive federal governments, decision-making on national security will remain ad-hoc, reactive, informal and personalised.
Annually, we continue to evaluate, from the citizens’ perspective, how the NSC has managed to play its due role every year.
Each year, we have chosen performance period based on the date of oath of office of Prime Minister. Our earlier reports since 2018 have been based on the annual period after the oath of Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 18, 2018. In 2022, Pakistan saw change of Prime Ministers as Mr. Imran Khan was voted out through a vote of no confidence on April 10, 2022, with 8 months of the year spent in the office, and the subsequent oath by Prime Minister Mr. Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on April 11, 2022. The PILDAT Report on Performance of the NSC in 2021-2022 covered the period from August 18, 2021 to August 17, 2022 though it looked at the working of the NSC under two Prime Ministers.
This year, as the NSC completes another year under the current Prime Minister on April 10, 2023, a PILDAT report looks at the role played by the NSC from April 11, 2022 to April 10, 2023.
The report is based on publicly-available data and reports in the media regarding the meetings of the NSC during the year.
