Civilian Control Of The Military In Pakistan: Accountability And Ministerial Responsibility

Abstract

A public inquiry on ‘Operation Burnham’ was conducted by the Government of New Zealand, and the major focus of the inquiry was to consider the core constitutional principle that arose in this Inquiry i.e., ‘ministerial accountability’ in conjunction with the norm of ‘civilian control of the military’. As part of partial requirement of my course Laws 541, I have to write a paper, for this purpose a survey will be done to know what has been said in Operation Burnham inquiry in regard to civilian control of the military and then compare it with Pakistan’s situation. In this paper I will basically highlight the difficulties that can arise if there are not appropriate systems and civilian control. I will also try to find out what are the lessons arising out of Pakistan's experience and see what can New Zealand learn from the Pakistani experience.