Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday urged provinces to implement decisions taken under the National Action Plan (NAP) speedily, by inculcating a spirit of healthy competition to rid the country of menace of extremism and terrorism. Chairing a meeting of the apex committee at the Governor's House here, the Prime Minister said the objective of the meeting was to review the progress on the National Action Plan and see if there was any problem or impediment hindering its implementation.
Prime Minister assured that the government along with the Pakistan Army would ensure that the problem areas and obstacles, if any, in implementing the decisions were removed. He said the NAP was in real terms a national plan, made with consensus and difficult decisions were taken with a spirit to eradicate terrorism from the country. He said the entire nation backed the government in its fight against terrorism.
The Prime Minister recalled that representatives of all the political parties stood together, took tough decisions following which the Parliament carried out the necessary legislation. He said that the Federal, Provincial governments and the Pakistan Army were on the same page and stand united in ridding the country of the threats of extremism and terrorism.
The Prime Minister directed that all cases of death penalty in which mercy petitions had been rejected should be proceeded further for execution. The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Balochistan, Dr Abdul Malik, Governor Mohammad Khan Achakzai, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal, former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Commander Southern Command Lieutenant General Nasser Khan Janjua, Senior Minister and PML-N President Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, Home Minister Mir Sarfarz Bugti, Chief Secretary Saifullah Chattha, Home Secretary Mohammad Akbar Durrani, Inspector General Police Mohammad Amlish, Inspector General Frontier Corps Balochistan Major General Shair Afghan, Secretary Interior and other senior officers.
The Prime Minister lauded the measures taken by the provincial government for maintaining law and order in Balochistan and said tangible improvement could be seen when implementation on the NAP began. He asked the provincial government to check the incidents of law and order to make the people feel more secured, besides making concerted efforts to ensure safety and protection of people of all communities. He also directed effective steps to stop re-emergence of proscribed organisations.
He said the seminaries involved in terrorism and violence be identified and dealt with as per relevant law. Chief Minister Balochistan Dr Malik said that priority of the provincial government was to improve law and order situation and said funds were being provided for capacity building of police. He said a counter-terrorism department had been set up; however, he added, it needed to be strengthened.
Chief Secretary Balochistan gave a presentation reviewing progress on the implementation of 20 points of the National Action Plan as well as an overview of law and order situation in the province. He briefed the Prime Minister about the actions taken by the provincial government against sectarianism, armed groups and militias since the formulation of the National Action Plan. In this regard 80,000 unregistered mobile phone SIMs had been blocked in the province, the Chief Secretary said. The provincial government also conveyed its reservations about the use of SIMS from Afghanistan working within Pakistan. The Prime Minister was informed that three meetings of the Balochistan Apex Committee had taken place so far.