WHEN the PTI government introduced Pakis­tan’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) in 2022, the framework placed its primary emphasis on geo-economics and the pursuit of economic security. However, as this five-year policy nears expiration, it seems that the geo-economic vision and citizen-centric approach envisioned under the NSP have failed to achieve their objectives. This lack of success stems from three major reasons.

The foremost reason is the curse of political discontinuity. When prime minister Imran Khan unveiled Pakistan’s first-ever NSP in January 2022, it was hailed as a revolutionary pivot towards a citizen-centric geo-economic future. Yet, just months later, the predictable wheel of Pakistani political instability turned, and with the ouster of the PTI government, the strategic document was promptly relegated to bureaucratic limbo. It seems that in Pakistan’s deeply polarised political landscape, structural continuity is a luxury. Successive administrations traditionally suffer from a profound ‘ownership gap’, and view the policy blueprints of their predecessors with suspicion. This does not mean that the incoming coalition government ripped up the NSP. Rather, the subsequent administrations of the PDM alliance and then the PML-N-led coalition found itself completely consumed by the base instincts of political survival and immediate fiscal fires. These priorities diluted institutional focus and shifted the national priority from long-term economic integration to immediate to short-term emergency bailouts.

Secondly, a viable geo-economic vision cannot survive in a fortress state. Rather, it demands liberalised trade policies, open borders, and a hyper-competitive export sector. But Islamabad remains wedded to an inward-looking........

© Dawn