ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser (NSA) retired Lt Gen Nasser Janjua on Wednesday stepped down from his office.

Soon after accepting Mr Janjua’s resignation, the caretaker government inducted former defence secretary retired Lt Gen Naeem Khalid Lodhi as a federal minister. Besides holding the charge of the national security division, Mr Lodhi was also assigned ministries of defence, defence production and aviation.

The former NSA, one of his friends confided, decided to resign on moral grounds because the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, which had initially appointed him — had left office after completing its tenure. The belated realisation appears to have come weeks after the installation of the caretaker government.

“It is to morally coincide and principally support the evolving democratic process upon completion of the tenure of the previous government,” Mr Janjua told Dawn when asked about the reasons for his resignation.

The outgoing PML-N government had left the fate of several of its appointees undecided and the NSA was one of them. His resignation follows Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf’s resignation and the caretaker government’s decision to remove Benazir Income Support Programme head Marvi Memon following objections by the opposition parties.

Mr Janjua was appointed NSA in October 2015. His status was equivalent to that of a minister of state. The PML-N government had then appointed him for “revitalising” the national security division, which had become dysfunctional because his predecessor Sartaj Aziz, who held dual charge of the Foreign Office and the National Security Division, was too pre-occupied with his foreign policy commitments.

At the time of his appointment, it was felt that induction of an ex-army man signalled shrinking control of the civilian administration over national security, which has traditionally been military’s domain. But contrary to public perceptions he was not too close to the GHQ.

Mr Janjua’s exit is also important because he was maintaining the only existing high-level contact with India. He was regularly in touch with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval. In addition to their telephonic contact and other communications, the two held few secret meetings that helped manage tensions between the two neighbours. More recently, the two men had part in ending the impasse over the harassment of diplomats posted in each other’s capitals.

Mr Janjua was also actively involved in the engagement with Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2018