The government has reportedly slowed the implementation of its portion of the National Action Plan (NAP) which is a major source of concern for opposition political parties as well as military leadership, informed sources revealed to Business Recorder.
This, sources added, is the root cause of the civil-military tension in recent months with the former focused on political survival through a tacit agreement not to proactively investigate mega scandals of former years while the latter claims that a nexus between corruption/money laundering and terrorism has been unearthed through Rangers investigations in Karachi. The NAP was approved at an all-party conference in January 2015 subsequent to the terror attack on Army Public School in Peshawar on 16 December 2014 where 140 mostly schoolchildren were killed. The components of NAP that have been implemented include the formation of military courts, counter-terrorism force at provincial level and hanging of some hardcore terrorists. All other components have yet to be implemented in true spirit.
"There is no major progress as far as rest of the counter-terrorism plan is concerned, which shows a lack of interest and seriousness on the part of the civilian government," said a senior official associated with the process of NAP implementation while requesting anonymity.
He said there is no progress on NAP components which relate to civilian authorities, adding no significant progress has been made with regard to strengthening and activation of National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta), though in response to severe criticism from different quarters the government recently stated that it would release Rs 1.6 billion for the activation of the Authority.
He also pointed out reforms of Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) is also one of the important points of the NAP but the committee constituted for suggesting the reforms is being criticised for giving no representation to the real stakeholders, the representatives of the FATA in parliament. Headed by Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, other members of the committee include Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch (Retd), Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security Lieutenant General Nasir Khan Janjua (Retd) and Secretary SAFRON Khalid Pervez.
The official maintained that there is also no progress on important things to be done like choking financing of terrorists and terrorist organisations, registration and regulation of seminaries, strict action against literature promoting hatred, decapitation, extremism, sectarianism and intolerance and ensuring action against re-emergence of proscribed organizations.
Instead of taking action against the proscribed outfits, the sources said that various political parties can be seen making electoral alliance with the banned outfits, which are operating under the banners of different names. Reforming the criminal justice system, according to the sources was another important point of the NAP but here too progress is almost zero. Similarly, the repatriation of Afghan refugees is another key element of NAP, which security analysts believe is a major source of terrorism in the country.
The sources further said that the ongoing Karachi operation led by Rangers is also facing delay due to lack of political support to security forces which is evident from the recent concerns in the Corps Commanders' conference. Parliamentary leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in Senate Senator Saeed Ghani stated that no progress has been made to implement the NAP in true spirit, adding the government should present a report in the parliament if it considers it has made any significant progress with regard to the plan.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Dr Arif Alvi maintained that it was unfortunate that the civilian government has completely failed to fulfil its responsibility with regard to NAP. "Unfortunately, the civilian government failed to deliver on the NAP and if anyone is doing something towards implementation of the plan, it is the military," he said, adding the Sindh provincial government is also creating hurdles for the security forces in the ongoing operation in Karachi.
"It seems that PPP, MQM and PML-N have joined forces to prevent implementation of the NAP in its true spirit...all the three parties are in fact resisting the law enforcement agencies actions in Karachi and elsewhere," he maintained. According to Senator Zahid Khan of Awami National Party (ANP), the only implementation which can be seen is the "military operation" in Karachi, which is only in progress because military is pushing the government.
But no action is being taken against the banned organisations across the country especially in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, adding various religio-political parties are supporting the banned outfits and a similar action is also required against these political and religious parties. Colonel Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Retd) of MQM opined that the government's seriousness can be judged from the fact that banned outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba and other proscribed organisations are actively taking part in the local bodies' elections.
"This is not merely an allegation, anybody can check the electioneering in Karachi where the photographs of leadership of the banned outfits can be seen on the banners and pamphlets with leadership of the mainstream political parties," he added. Mohammad Amir Rana, director Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) who was also part of the committee which proposed the NAP, argued that the government had taken effectives steps to implement the plan soon after the plan was announced but it appears to have slowed down considerably with the passage of time. Referring to the formation of the military courts and executions of the hardcore terrorists, he noted that only 24 hardcore terrorists, out of 250, have so far been hanged, after a moratorium on death penalty was lifted.
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