National Security Policy centered on goals defined in Vision 2025: Ahsan

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal Friday said the roadmap to formulate the National Internal Security Policy was centered on the goals defined in Vision 2025 that envisaged sharing peace, stability and development.

Chairing a high level meeting on formulation of National Internal Security Policy (NISP) 2018-2023, he said the government had steered the country towards progress by taking measures for promotion of peace and stability.

"We need to take practical steps now in order to consolidate gains made and improve our capabilities for new and future threats to our peace and security," he said. "We must develop a comprehensive approach with the ownership of all stakeholders to succeed in implementation," he said. He said the youth constituting a major part of population was a precious asset to the country.

“It is our priority to mobilise our youth towards peace and stability by providing them with an enabling environment. Officials from the law enforcement agencies (LEAs, Counter Terrorism Force, provincial home ministries, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Ministry of Interior attended the meeting. The participants approved a detailed roadmap for policy formulation process that includes three rounds of consultation sessions involving key stakeholders and a national conference on internal security.

This represents a move towards evidence-based policy making in order to design policy interventions that deal with not only symptoms, but also root-causes of security issues. Ahsan said political stability played a vital role for development which required avoiding conflicts in all forms and manifestations. National Security has become a broad subject. The nature of threats is changing with technological revolution, he said.

He said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has changed Geo-Political equilibrium in region due to which new Geo-Political pressures are developing on Pakistan. He said new internal security policy framework was directed towards establishing a new paradigm for policy on security and peaceand added a more empirical and evidence-based approach focused on implementation of goals had been adopted.

Ahsan said ownership and participation of key government departments as well as that of key state institutions and broader civil society was critical for its success and implementation. He, therefore, requested feedback from all stakeholders and their continued engagement during policy making process. The minister said internal and external affairs were interconnected and had implications on domestic and foreign policies.