'Civil-military imbalance has made Pak security-driven state'

The civil-military imbalance has made Pakistan a security-driven state and the issue can only be collectively tackled by parliament, the government, political parties, media and civil society, a top leader of the ruling PPP has said.

No government in the past has succeeded in correcting the civil-military imbalance and no future administration is likely to succeed without the backing of political parties and parliament, said Farhatullah Babar, a member of the upper house of parliament and the spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari.

It was widely perceived that critical policies on foreign relations and national security were made by the security establishment without oversight by parliament and political forces, Babar said at a discussion yesterday on parliamentary oversight of defence and national security.

"Indeed, the security establishment seems to have struck with a vengeance whenever civil-political forces tried to shape foreign policy," Babar said at the meet organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Trasnparency.

Giving examples, Babar said late military ruler Zia-ul-Haq had used Islam as a facade to dismiss a premier who tried to take political parties on board on the Geneva Accords on Afghanistan.

Similarly, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s bold move to normalise relations with India was scuttled through the Kargil conflict and Sharif was punished with dismissal, a court case and a decade of exile, he said.

Babar said it was widely believed that slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was not allowed to pick her foreign minister in her first government.

"This demonstrates the refusal of the establishment even to share the foreign policy formulation," he said.