Islamabad, March 24: In a PILDAT Briefing Session on The Role of Ministry of Defence in Pakistan, Parliamentarians and Defence experts believed that a Parliamentary Oversight of the Defence Sector and a Civilian Control of Ministry of Defence needed to be established in Pakistan for establishing a constitutional equation between the civil and the military. Democratically-elected political leadership of the country should not abdicate its responsibility of strategic and policy decision-making to the Military without a democratic ownership, believed experts.

�The Briefing provides an essential and necessary impetus for dialogue which is key for understanding of where we stand in the journey of democratisation today, especially in terms of civil-military relations in Pakistan,� said Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, MNA; Chairperson National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence who chaired the Briefing Session. Now that Parliament is considering constitutional reforms to shift the balance of power from the President to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister will have to carefully balance the civil-military relationship and the so-called �troika,� she observed. She supported firm and effective civilian control of defence policies and said that the Ministry of Defence should be re-located outside the Military�s General Headquarters from Rawalpindi to the Pak Secretariat alongside other federal ministries. She rejected calls for training or orientation of Parliamentarians in defence-related institutions and supported that military personnel, as is the practice in India, should be trained by Parliamentary institutes in Pakistan to understand the parliamentary systems and supremacy.

Key speakers at the briefing included Mr. Shahid Hamid, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, former Defence Minister and former Governor and Mr. Ayaz Amir, MNA, Member National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence. Members of the Parliamentary Committees on Defence, Parliamentarians, Academicians, and media representatives participated in the Briefing Session.

As a background to the Briefing Session, a Comparative Study of the Roles and Responsibilities of Ministries of Defence in India and Pakistan was prepared by PILDAT and co-authored by Dr. G. Balachandran, Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis and Mr. Shahid Hamid, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, former Defence Minister and former Governor, in order to provide a detailed overview of the working of the Ministries of Defence both in India and Pakistan as well as to provide a comparative overview of tasks and responsibilities of the two ministries.

An elected democratic government has to take effective political ownership of the defence policy of Pakistan. To be able to do so serious thought and consideration should be given to the conversion of the Defence Committee into a National Security Council, with a permanent secretariat and advisory think-tanks, a role that could be played by PILDAT, advised Mr. Shahid Hamid. Comparing the powers of the Ministries of Defence in India and Pakistan, Mr. Shahid Hamid said that there was not much difference in the functions and powers of the two; however, the real difference remains in the effective exercise of these powers in Pakistan. �An empowered defence minister who is not by-passed by direct meetings and links between the Head of State and the Head of Government, on the one hand, and the Service Chiefs on the other and activation of apex defence bodies such as the Defence Council chaired by the Defence Minister to co-ordinate the defence, foreign and finance policies of Pakistan, and to approve major works including induction of new weapon systems proposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee; a defence ministry that is manned, in the main, by civilian bureaucrats except where the nature or duties of the post mandate that it should be filled by a serving officer of the armed forces; more effective parliamentary oversight by the Standing Committees of the Senate and the National Assembly especially with regard to defence budget and six-monthly, if not more frequent, meetings of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet to discuss and approve matters relating to defence and national security.

Mr. Ayaz Amir said that parliamentary oversight effectively means government oversight as in a Parliamentary system, executive is borne-out of the Parliament. He said that even though the military enjoyed the lowest levels of public support due to the role played by Gen. Pervez Musharraf ahead of February 2008 elections, it seems to have gained back the confidence and public stature, which is commendable but the civilian elected leadership seems to have abdicated its responsibility of strategic decision making to the Army Chief. He gave the example of the United States where all the critical defence-related decisions are made in Pentagon under the leadership of the Defence Secretary. Even the on-going strategic dialogue in USA, especially relating to defence, is being lead by US Secretary of Defence Mr. Gates while the COAS from Pakistan, instead of the Defence Minister, will lead it from the side of Pakistan.

Participants believed that the armed forces should be subservient to democratic control and should follow strategic planning and policies adopted by the democratically-elected civilian governments. Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, MNA said that the parliamentary committees on defence should undertake study on Kargil debacle and engage in meaningful oversight of defence sector. Mr. Adnan Aurangzeb, former MNA from Swat said that the government needs to come up with a strategy as to what should be done politically, judicially and administratively in areas like FATA, PATA and other war effected areas of the country. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Talat Masood said that the army has increased its area of domain and power over the years. He emphasized on the need for objective and independent indigenous think tanks that not only support the work of Parliamentary defence committees but aid democratic government�s policy decision-making. Media needs to play an effective role. Political leaders and parties should institute reform within themselves and be mindful of not creating decision-making vacuum.

The PILDAT Briefing Session held and the Comparative Study has been produced under PILDAT's larger programme of �Research and Dialogue on Civil-Military Relations for Conflict Prevention in Pakistan� that is supported by the United States Institute of Peace-USIP.