Counter-terror strategy: Nisar admits slow progress on five NAP points

Interior minister says NAP is a shared responsibility as half of the plan is related to provincial govts

ISLAMABAD:

While claiming that there was a sea change in the country’s law and order situation, the country’s top security czar on Wednesday admitted that re-emergence of proscribed organisations in the country was one of the five areas of the National Action Plan (NAP) where progress was slow.

The 20-point NAP was adopted by the national leadership as a counter terrorism strategy in the wake of last year’s deadly attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.

Briefing the Senate on progress over the NAP, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said progress on five areas of the NAP was slow. These include re-emergence of proscribed organisations with different names, Fata reforms, measures against promotion of terrorism through internet and social media, issue of Afghan refugees and revamping criminal justice system. “The progress on the remaining 15 points of the NAP is satisfactory,” he said.



Nisar said the NAP is a shared responsibility as half of the plan is directly related to provincial governments and his ministry is directly linked with only three points. However, he said, he had not denied responsibility as the coordinator for the plan. “The NAP is the agenda for national security and no one should play politics over it,” he said.

Nisar said action will be taken against such proscribed organisations as he invited lawmakers to share evidence about any proscribed organisation hoisting its banners and contesting elections. At the same time, he reminded members that no one even knew the exact number of proscribed organisations before the incumbent government took over.

“Don’t say that the glass is half empty,” the minister said, as he presented a 35-point report on progress achieved over the last six months, contrasting the figures of terror attacks of five years ago with those of the present to bring home the point that the law and order situation had greatly improved.

“Give some credit to civilian leadership as well because military operation alone cannot bring peace back,” he said, adding that terrorist activities were touching skies after operation in Swat and South Waziristan.

Nisar said the government had prepared itself for the fallout of the military operation. “There have been 6,500 intelligence based operations,” he said. He said the government has succeeded during the first year of the NAP as terrorists’ networks have been dismantled but it will take time to remove their facilitators. “The war is not over yet,” he added.

Nisar informed the house that there were around 28,000 students enrolled in the religious seminaries in the federal capital.

Karachi Operation

The Interior minister’s report said there was a significant decline in terrorism and crime and an improvement in law and order situation in Karachi due to the paramilitary Rangers-led surgical operation.

It said the targeted killing in the city had reduced crime 53%; murders by 50%; terrorism by 80%; robberies by 30%; extortion by 56%. It said 69,179 criminals, 890 terrorists, 676 proclaimed offenders, 10,426 absconders, 124 kidnappers, 545 extortionists, 1,834 murderers were arrested during the operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2015.