Bolstering anti-terror efforts: Govt to review NAP’s one-year performance

All provinces, G-B, AJK to share separate reports

ISLAMABAD:

The government has decided to review the past year’s performance of the counterterrorism strategy adopted in the wake of the horrendous Peshawar school attack last December.

The date and formal announcement of the meeting would be made after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s return to the country, said a senior member in the Nawaz administration.

Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, all the chief ministers and others will be invited to the huddle.

Following the methodical attack on the Army Public School in which more than 150 pupils and staff were killed, civil and military leaders devised a consensus on combating extremism and terrorism with an iron fist, which took shape as the National Action Plan.

An official of the interior ministry said that the details of all the apex committee meetings, progress and priority areas would also be on the agenda of the huddle, adding that a performance report of the military courts would also be presented.

All provincial administrations as well as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir would be asked to share separate performance reports.

Issues in the Rangers’ Karachi operation, weak prosecution and lack of coordination between provincial governments and law enforcement agencies would also be discussed.

According to a Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah would share his concerns about the overlaps in provincial governance.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan would inform the huddle about the federal government’s efforts to implement NAP. He would also inform the huddle about the steps taken for the revival of the National Counterterrorism Authority. He said a building for setting up the office of 33 intelligence agencies’ headquarters was also identified. The new rules to register international non-governmental organisations will also be discussed.

States and Frontier Regions Minister Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch would brief the meeting about the status of Afghan refugees.

He would also share the details of his visit to Kabul and the decisions taken in meetings with the Afghan authorities and UNHCR.

PM Nawaz’s adviser said a two-member committee’s report on reformation of laws would also be shared with the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th,  2015.