National Command Authority (Pakistan)
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The National Command Authority ( ur, ) is the apex Government-led command to oversee the employment, policy formulation, exercises, deployment, research and development, and operational command and control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenals. The National Command Authority was established in 2000 as a successor to Air Force Strategic Command which was established by the then- Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal
Anwar Shamim Air Chief Marshal Mohammad Anwar Shamim ( ur, ); (1 October 1931 – 4 January 2013) was a senior air officer of the Pakistan Air Force and was the Chief of Air Staff, appointed to the post in 1978 until retiring in 1985. Born in Haripur, B ...
in 1983. The National Command Authority is charged with joint-space operations (such as
military satellites A military satellite is an artificial satellite used for a military purpose. The most common missions are intelligence gathering, navigation and military communications. The first military satellites were photographic reconnaissance missions. So ...
), information operations (such as
information warfare Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...
),
missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...
, internal and external command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance ( C4ISR), and
strategic deterrence Deterrence theory refers to the scholarship and practice of how threats or limited force by one party can convince another party to refrain from initiating some other course of action. The topic gained increased prominence as a military strategy ...
, and combating
weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...
. The National Command Authority oversees the operations of the
Pakistani Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result ...
,
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...
, and
Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
's Strategic Commands, along with their functional basis. The unified military strategic command structure is intended to give the
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
and
Cabinet of Pakistan Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
a unified resource for greater understanding of specific threats (military, nuclear, chemical, biological, radiological, conventional, and non-conventional, and intelligence) and the means to respond to those threats as quickly as possible to prevent the collateral damage. The civilian Prime Minister is the Chairman of this Command, with all military assets, components of NCA, and strategic commands directly reporting to Chairman of their course of development and deployment.
Chairman Joint Chiefs of staff committee The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) ( ur, ) is, in principle, the highest-ranking and senior most uniformed military officer, typically at four-star rank, in the Pakistan Armed Forces who serves as a Principal Staff Officer an ...
, Service Chiefs , and DG ISI are members of NCA , and DG SPD is the ex officio secretary of NCA , with SPD functioning as the NCA’s secretariat


Organizational structure

The NCA consists of the following nine
ex officio member An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by right ...
s:http://www.na.gov.pk/acts/act_2010/national_command_authority_act2010_090310.pdf The Director-General of the NCA's Strategic Plans Division (SPD) is the ''ex officio'' Secretary of the NCA and the SPD functions as the NCA's secretariat. The current Secretary of NCA is Lt. General Yusuf Jamal. Decision making in the NCA takes place through consensus and, in the event that consensus is not achieved, then through voting, with each member having a single vote.


Background

The
Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...
felt the need to establish an administrative authority after Pakistan's first publicly announced
atomic test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...
s, ''
Chagai-I Chagai-I is the code name of five simultaneous underground nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan at 15:15 hrs PKT on 28 May 1998. The tests were performed at Ras Koh Hills in the Chagai District of Balochistan Province. Chagai-I was Pakistan' ...
'' and ''
Chagai-II Chagai-II is the codename assigned to the second atomic test conducted by Pakistan, carried out on 30 May 1998 in the Kharan Desert in Balochistan Province of Pakistan. ''Chagai-II'' took place two days after Pakistan's first successful test, ...
'', in late May 1998 at the Ras Koh weapon-testing labs in the
Chagai Hills The Chagai Hills is a range of granite hills in the Chagai District in Pakistan's Balochistan province. Location The Chagai Hills lie between 28' 46" to 29' 34" N and 63' 18" to 64' 50" in a desert area in the northernmost part of Chagai Dist ...
range of
Chagai District Chaghi District ( bal, ; urd, ), also known as Chaghi District, is the largest Districts of Pakistan, district of Pakistan by area, located in the north west corner of Balochistan (Pakistan), Balochistan, Pakistan. Demographics At the time of ...
, and the
Kharan Desert The Kharan Desert ( ur, صحرائے خاران) is a sandy and mountainous desert situated in Balochistan province in south-western Pakistan.The desert covers an area of about 36,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest deserts in ...
of
Balochistan Province Balochistan (; bal, بلۏچستان; ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It shares land ...
. The roots of such mechanism traced back to the 1970s when
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...
authorized the atomic bomb project to keep the projects safe from being exploited, politicized, or infiltrated by enemy powers attempting to sabotage them. It is alleged by the former Chief of Army Staff, General
Mirza Aslam Beg General Mirza Aslam Beg ( ur, ; born 2 August 1931), also known as M. A. Beg, was a Pakistan Army officer, who served as the 3rd Chief of Army Staff from 1988 until his retirement in 1991. His appointment as chief of army staff came when hi ...
in 1994, that the Command was established in 1972 by former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he authorized the atomic bomb project. The Joint Staff Headquarters (JS HQ) served its combatant operational command and is chaired by the Prime Minister. In 1994, General Beg retains: " (...).... The NCA determines the state of readiness which has to be maintained at all times... (sic)... and lays down in great detail the policy of how the various components will be placed, protected and safeguarded.". In April 1999, the
Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), ( ur, ); is an administrative body of senior high-ranking uniformed military leaders of the unified Pakistan Armed Forces who advises the civilian Government of Pakistan, National Security Council, ...
and the Chief of Army Staff, General
Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...
developed a unified central command system to use nuclear and missile technology as part of the defence and security of nuclear assets under government control. Finally, the command was formally established and given commissioned on February 3, 2000, after approval by Pakistan's
National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...
. The command compromises the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), the Development Control Committee (DCC), and a Strategic Plans Division (SPD). The Prime Minister— Chief Executive (Head of Government) of the country served as its chairman while other members included the high-profile Ministers of
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
,
Defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...
( Military Production),
Economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
,
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
, and Interior, the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chiefs of the
Pakistani Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the Military, military forces of Pakistan. It is the List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel, world's sixth-largest military measured by Active duty, active military personnel and con ...
, and the Director-General of the SPD. The DCC includes the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee (as deputy chairman of DCC), the chiefs of the armed forces, the director general of the SPD, and a "representative of the strategic organization and scientific community (science adviser)". Since the 1970s onward, the National Command Authority is responsible for policy formulation and will exercise employment and development control over all strategic nuclear forces and strategic organizations. It consists of an Employment Control Committee and a Development Control Committee, as well as the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) which acts as its secretariat. The SPD is responsible for the management and administration of the country's tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile. It was created the same year as the NCA was formed. Their directives are to be operationalized by a new SPD under the control of a Director-General at the rank of
Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
( Air Marshal or Vice-Admiral) in charge of the management and administration of the tactical and strategic nuclear forces. The current director-general of the SPD is Lt Gen Sarfraz Sattar after replacing Lieutenant-General Mazhar Jamil. Since its establishment, Pervez Musharraf, as
President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.2008 General Elections, Pakistani lawmakers introduced a new law which was passed unanimously by the
Pakistani Parliament The Parliament of Pakistan ( ur, , , "Pakistan Advisory Council" or "Pakistan Consultative Assembly") is the federal and supreme legislative body of Pakistan. It is a bicameral federal legislature that consists of the Senate as the upper ...
. The bill placed the NCA's Authority under the Prime Minister’s command.


Subordinate Commands

The directives of the NCA are to be operationalised by the: *
Strategic Plans Division Strategic Plans Division Force or (SPD Force) ( ur, ) is Pakistan's agency responsible for the protection of its tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile and the strategic assets. It is the security branch of the National Command Author ...
** Army Strategic Forces Command ** Naval Strategic Forces Command ** Air Force Strategic Command


See also

*
Nuclear doctrine of Pakistan The Nuclear doctrine of Pakistan is a theoretical concept of military strategy that promotes deterrence by guaranteeing an immediate "massive retaliation" to an aggressive attack against the state. Pakistan's foreign minister Shamshad Ahmad had ...
*
List of missiles of Pakistan A list of missiles used by Pakistan. Surface-to-surface missiles Rocket Artillery * KRL Ghazab — (40 km) * A-100E — (120 km) — ''(China)'' * Fateh-1 — (150 km) Anti-tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) *BGM-71 TOW — (3.75& ...
*
Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction Pakistan is one of nine states to possess nuclear weapons. Pakistan began development of nuclear weapons in January 1972 under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who delegated the program to the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commis ...


References


External links


CSIS Missile Threat - Pakistan

National Command Authority Act, 2010




{{Military of Pakistan Military of Pakistan Nuclear weapons programme of Pakistan Pakistan federal departments and agencies 2000 establishments in Pakistan Continuity of government in Pakistan Government agencies established in 2000 Strategic forces of Pakistan