Rebuttal: Interior ministry offers open debate on NAP performance

The move comes in the wake of a published report that criticised its outcome

The interior ministry has offered to engage in an open debate and discussion on its performance regarding implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) with its true meaning. They came up with the proposal after a news report appeared in this newspaper headlined, “National Action Plan execution: PM sidelines interior ministry,” on April 9.

While expressing his displeasure over the news item, the spokesperson for Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Thursday that the performance and achievements of the ministry is not something secret but an official documented and public information which can be seen and compared with any period of time, clarified an official handout issued by the ministry.

However, the National Action Plan, the statement admitted, is faced with inaction over the last two months, simply because of inaction on three major points which do not fall under the purview of the interior ministry.

The spokesperson insisted that not only is the report “highly inaccurate, misleading and a distortion of the factual positions” it also has a mala fide content in it, adding that so far it seeks to cast aspersions on the performance of the interior ministry quoting ‘hidden and unnamed sources’.

For the record, the minister did not ‘briefly’ attend the joint session of parliament on the first two days as reported by the correspondent, he was very much there until the adjournment of the house, he added.

The spokesperson pointed out that Chaudhry Nisar is heading and contributing to the performance of 12 out of 16 sub-committees that were constituted under the NAP.

For the major meetings of the NAP, the senior representatives from across the federal government, provincial authorities, civil and armed forces were present, he added.

The spokesperson maintained that it is completely misleading to say that the interior minister was not invited to the relevant meeting as mentioned in the news report. The correspondent and his ‘mysterious sources’ are welcome to come and check the written record of the invitation sent to the minister.

For the record, the statement said, it is also clarified that the NAP was conceived, chaired and implemented by Chaudhry Nisar, in its entirety, in consultation with all the stakeholders in the country.

If the correspondent or his hidden and unidentified sources had taken the trouble to go through the interior minister’s briefing before the National Assembly’s Standing Committee about the performance of the ministry during the past 12 months where the committee representing all the political parties unanimously commended and complimented the performance of the interior ministry, the need for such an article might not have arisen, the spokesperson maintained.

He also said the minister has on more than one occasion requested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take a briefing from all the ministries on their performance and has also repeatedly volunteered the interior ministry to be the first in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.