Inception: 1969–1971 with
President Richard Nixon established the NSC as akin to the American
National Security Council (NSC) in 1969. The
Pakistan military has been sending many recommendations for the establishment of the National Security Council as akin and counterpart to the
American National Security Council. At the NSC
cabinet meeting, the Pakistani government, military, scientific, and civilian officials were participating in a debate,
broadening, and complicating the
decision-making process. As dawn broke over the Chagai mountains, Pakistan became the world's seventh nuclear power. Secondly, the NSC meeting took place during the heights of the
Kargil War in 1999. Empowerment of the NSC at the bureaucratic level was the primary issue that led to the forced
relieve of
Chairman Joint Chiefs General
Jehangir Karamat in 1998. In an absence of the forum, the upheavals in
civil–military relations led to the
dismissal of
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 when he tried to dismissed then-
Chairman Joint Chiefs Pervez Musharraf.
Reconstruction and developments: 2004–2008 After staging a
coup d'état against the government of
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999,
Chairman joint chiefs Pervez Musharraf announced the establishment of six member national security council in his first television speech. Through a presidential act, the concept of NSC was formally established under an order of the chief executive on 30 October 1999. The presidential order also led the establishment of the
National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) as a think tank. On 9 September 2013, Prime Minister Sharif proposed that dialogue with the
Pakistani military would create a
civil-military partnership, putting the military and an elected government on the same page for the first time in
Pakistan's history. After reconstituting the
Cabinet Committee on National Security (C2NS), with
military gaining representation in the country's politics, the NSC came into effect as an influential policy institution. Decision came from
Prime Minister Sharif to reconstitute the NSC to improve
coordination between the civil and military institutions in order to deal with a nagging
far-right insurgency that has killed and maimed thousands of Pakistanis over the last few years. According to the
political scientist and
civic-military relations expert, Aqil Shah, Sharif finally did what exactly former
chairman joint chiefs General Karamat had called for in 1998. Since then, the NSC meetings with Prime Minister Sharif have been taking place frequently. ==See also==