President must head NSC: No compromise on Kashmir: Musharraf
By Ihtasham ul Haque
ISLAMABAD, June 27: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the National Security Council will have to be headed by the president to ensure strong checks and balances among the three power brokers — the president, the prime minister and the army chief.
This he said at the National Defence College on Thursday where he had received a presentation on “Suggested National Security Strategy for Pakistan”.
Gen Musharraf rejected a proposal that the prime minister should head the NSC instead of the president.
“If the Chief of Army Staff becomes ambitious, he starts crossing the limits; and if the president goes impulsive, things start getting deteriorated, and if the prime minister renders himself ineffective and starts plundering, it becomes difficult to run the affairs of the country,” he remarked.
According to informed sources, he said the president and the army chief would be helpful to the prime minister in case the opposition of the country unnecessarily tried to create problems for the government of the day.
“I don’t have any political agenda and ambitions, and that is why I feel that the president should head the NSC,” he said, justifying the proposed restoration of presidential powers for sacking of the prime minister if he committed excesses and deviated from the path of ruling the country through fair and democratic means.
The president elaborated that basically the job of the NSC would be to facilitate the prime minister and “not” to create hurdles in his way as many people wrongly perceived. He said there was a genuine need to strike a balance in the powers of the president, the prime minister and the COAS and added: “Since I am not pursing any personal political agenda, I think I can perform this job well”.
The president agreed that the NSC was the subject of the prime minister but believed that the PM could not play the balancing role among the three power brokers.
The group that gave the presentation was headed by Brig Shahid Mukhtar. Other members of the groups included Air Commodore Farhat, Mirza Arshad of Pakistan Navy and Rifat Pasha, who belongs to the federal bureaucracy.
“You may change the name of the NSC which in the first place gives the impression that it will only deal with security matters, but the fact of the matter is that this organization will be there to watch the affairs of the country and provide all possible help to the prime minister,” sources quoted the president as having stated.
The president said the main purpose of the NSC would be to make sure that democracy did not get derailed and the country did not suffer politically and economically as had been the case in the past. “Let me assure you that the army chief as being the member of NSC would extend all his support to the prime minister in case the opposition tries to take any undue advantage of any particular situation,” the president said.
Referring to Afghanistan and Kashmir, the president assured the participants that his government would never compromise on national interest and it was wrong to presume that Kashmir issue has been buried in the recent talks with the United States and western governments.
The president told the participants that Pakistan was pursuing its Afghan policy keeping in view the changing circumstances. “But Kashmir is our national interest and we will never compromise on that,” he said, adding that policies could be changed but national interest did not change.
In reply to a question, he said Pakistan and Kashmir co-existed and that there was no question of ignoring the Kashmir issue.
The president said that Kashmir problem needed to be resolved amicably through peaceful means, and in accordance with UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
He also spoke of various challenges that Pakistan was facing today and proper responses to them to protect the national interest.
Many questions were asked from the participants, including the minister for interior, minister for population welfare, and Vice Chief of Army Staff.
ISLAMABAD, June 27: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the National Security Council will have to be headed by the president to ensure strong checks and balances among the three power brokers — the president, the prime minister and the army chief.
