National Action Plan execution: Premier sidelines interior ministry

Officials at PM Office claim the ministry proved incompetent to handle the task

ISLAMABAD:

Government has taken back the task of implementing its counter-terrorism strategy – National Action Plan (NAP) – from the interior ministry without considering its pending requests for fund allocations, reliable sources told The Express Tribune.

A close aide of the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan quoted him as saying: “I have nothing to do with the NAP, as the prime minister office has taken control of this process.”

Nisar also told few lawmakers that he was captain of the NAP only for the first three weeks. The NAP was unanimously adopted by the national leadership in the wake of the December 16 terror attack on a school in Peshawar



The interior ministry’s officials have also conceded that the ministry has been cut down to size. Meanwhile, officials at Prime Minister Office claim that the interior ministry proved to be inefficient and incompetent in handling such a big task.

An official said that now the role of interior ministry is just a ceremonial one. Another official said the prime minister as head of the government is overseeing all these affairs. “Interior secretary represents the ministry in all such meetings and reports on issues,”
he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has submitted a motion in the Senate Secretariat asking for a briefing regarding progress in the implementation of
the NAP.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Senator Sayed said he moved the motion under Rule 218 to invoke a public importance issue. “Since we were part of this plan and now we wanted to know about the status of this national counterterrorism strategy.”

Interestingly, during the first three days of parliament’s joint session on Yemen crisis, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ensured his brief appearance on Monday and Tuesday but left the house without interacting with anyone including his colleagues and boss Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

A lawmaker observed that “They (Nisar and Premier Nawaz) did not even exchange a glance.” The prime minister arrived at the National Assembly on Wednesday but Nisar did not opt to attend the session.

According to sources, at least two federal ministers, who are key to implementing the counterterrorism policy, are not on speaking terms while there are also signs of growing distance between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

For the last few weeks, the interior minister has remained absent from key meetings, particularly those on the Karachi operation, and it is learnt that he was not invited to these important huddles.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2015.