Not one dept's job: Interior ministry defends NAP's implementation

Spokesperson says 54,376 operations have yielded 60,420 arrests in over six months

A day after reports emerged of scathing criticism of the National Action Plan (NAP), the Interior Ministry issued a report to contradict comments of Justice Jawad S Khawaja that ‘not a single bit of work was done’ under the plan, claiming that over 50,000 raids had been conducted with over 60,000 suspects arrested in the past six months, Radio Pakistan reported.

Defending NAP, a spokesperson of Interior Ministry explained that execution of the plan was not the responsibility of one department or ministry, rather it was a national agenda involving federal and provincial departments with plan implementation being monitored by apex committees. He added that work was continuing.

Giving details about the ‘work’ done under the plan, the spokesperson said that so far 54,376 raids have been conducted in the country which have led to the arrest of 60,420 suspects. The spokesperson added that 3,019 intelligence-based operations had also been carried out.

Detailing action taken to counter unverified SIMs, the spokesperson said that 97.9 million mobile phone SIMs had been verified using biometric systems. The exercise, the spokesperson said, had resulted in5.1 million unverified SIMs being blocked.

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The spokesperson added that NAP and operation Zarb-e-Azb had dealt a heavy blow to terrorists, and dented their activities in the country, with crime rate going down significantly as well. He added that the NAP had also been acknowledged by the international organisations.

Read: National Action Plan: 94m SIMs verified; deadline extended

Karachi, the spokesperson said, had seen a 44 per cent decline in target killings, 37 per cent decrease in murders, 46 per cent in terrorism and 23 per cent in theft cases. About 56,000 criminals including 688 terrorists have also been arrested,” he said.

The interior ministry, the spokesperson said, will submit a report on the progress and implementation of NAP in Supreme Court next week.

The article originally appeared on Radio Pakistan