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Pakistan
Ministry of Defence
The minister of defense is a civilian member of the cabinet,
chairs the Defence Council, and is in turn a member of the higher-level
Cabinet Defence Committee. The Ministry of Defence has a permanent
staff of civil servants headed by the defense secretary general.
Of particular importance to the Ministry of Defence is the adviser
for military finance, who heads the Military Finance Division
in the Ministry of Finance but is attached to the Ministry of
Defence. The adviser functions as the principal financial officer
of the defense ministry and the subordinate services.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee deals with all problems bearing
on the military aspects of state security and is charged with
integrating and coordinating the three services. In peacetime,
its principal function is planning; in time of war, its chairman
is the principal staff officer to the president in the supervision
and conduct of the war. The secretariat of the committee serves
as the principal link between the service headquarters and the
Ministry of Defence in addition to coordinating matters between
the services. The three branches within the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee deal with planning, training, and logistics. Affiliated
with the committee are the offices of the engineer in chief, the
director general of medical service, the director of inter-services
intelligence, and the director of inter-services public relations.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee supervises the National Defence
College, the Joint Services Staff College, and the Inter-Service
Selection Board. )
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence is of particular
importance at the joint services level. The directorate's importance
derives from two sources. First, it is the agency charged with
managing covert operations outside of Pakistan--whether in Afghanistan,
Kashmir, or farther afield. Second, in the past it was deeply
involved in domestic politics and kept track of the incumbent
regime's opponents. In addition, when the regime was unpopular
with the military and the president (as was Benazir Bhutto's first
government), the agency helped topple it by working with opposition
political parties.
Data as of April 1994
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