Need for more transparency
How the National Action Plan is faring is usually conveyed by a whole lot of numbers
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How the National Action Plan (NAP) is faring is usually conveyed by a whole lot of numbers. The new set of statistics released by the interior ministry to highlight the implementation of the counter-terror plan also has big numbers. Over 17,000 cases have been registered, while more than 19,000 people have been arrested on charges of hate speech, using extremist literature and misusing loudspeakers. In the digital world, the number of blocked URLs under NAP now stands over 900.
While these statistics paint a near perfect picture of success, what they fail to convey is on what grounds have these arrests been made or websites blocked. There is barely any transparency or accountability as to how things are being done. In Karachi alone, for instance, there is a reported 90% decrease in terrorism and a 91% decline in cases of targeted killings that at first glance points towards a successful policy. But at the same time there is a cloud of silence over extrajudicial killings and little can be said or asked about the victims of these operations.
The same goes for online content. While crime is said to have decreased by banning websites and accounts of proscribed organisations, there is little doubt that an average user of social media feels threatened by the state too. Prohibitions that should only have existed to the extent of protecting citizens from terror and extremism instead make citizens fearful of the state itself. A direct example of this climate of fear is the government’s full-fledged efforts to remove blasphemous content from Facebook. So far, three people have been arrested on these charges, while law enforcers have also found blasphemous content from the suspects’ laptops and mobile devices. This environment of policing has significantly worsened post NAP.
As promising as these statistics appear then, we must have more transparency as to what constitutes a crime under NAP so it does not become a cover to prevent open dissent and debate.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2017.
While these statistics paint a near perfect picture of success, what they fail to convey is on what grounds have these arrests been made or websites blocked. There is barely any transparency or accountability as to how things are being done. In Karachi alone, for instance, there is a reported 90% decrease in terrorism and a 91% decline in cases of targeted killings that at first glance points towards a successful policy. But at the same time there is a cloud of silence over extrajudicial killings and little can be said or asked about the victims of these operations.
The same goes for online content. While crime is said to have decreased by banning websites and accounts of proscribed organisations, there is little doubt that an average user of social media feels threatened by the state too. Prohibitions that should only have existed to the extent of protecting citizens from terror and extremism instead make citizens fearful of the state itself. A direct example of this climate of fear is the government’s full-fledged efforts to remove blasphemous content from Facebook. So far, three people have been arrested on these charges, while law enforcers have also found blasphemous content from the suspects’ laptops and mobile devices. This environment of policing has significantly worsened post NAP.
As promising as these statistics appear then, we must have more transparency as to what constitutes a crime under NAP so it does not become a cover to prevent open dissent and debate.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2017.