Experts concerned over slow implementation of NAP

ISLAMABAD: Experts Wednesday expressed concern over the slow-paced implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism and asked the government to ensure its effective execution and urged imposition of a three-month national security emergency.
The conference titled ‘National Action Plan: Policy to Practice’ was jointly organised by the Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS) and German Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), to review the progress on implementation of the NAP on Counter-terrorism.
Speakers deliberated on security situation in the country and the contours of the counterterrorism strategy that was put in place after the Army Public School Peshawar tragedy.Chairman of Senate Committee on Human Rights Senator Afrasiab Khattak pointed out that banned organisations were still active and little action had been taken against hate speech.
Former defence secretary Lt Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik said that the only cure to the problem lay in governance. He said there was a lot of focus on TTP terrorism, but virtually a blind eye was being turned to sectarianism and other problems including Karachi. He suggested various steps that the government needed to undertake for effective implementation of its counterterrorism plan, which included reforms in the police, mosque, seminaries and the curriculum; steps for economic revival, ending corruption, ensuring justice and providing education and health services.
Manzar Zaidi, former director at Nacta, said NAP was an important milestone in the history of Pakistan even though the measures agreed under it were not new. Apart from the civil-military relations, he observed that it was important to look into the civil-military organisational capacity imbalance because civilian institutions had, on a number of occasions, failed to step up to the plate.
Zaidi said it was important that police and law enforcement organisations had functional research wings. He remarked that National

Police Bureau and R&D department of Police were dysfunctional. The National Public Safety Commission, he further said, wasn’t allowed to take shape either.
He observed that it was more important to implement the policies and laws instead of creating new institutions. “It’s important to build the capacity of Anti-Terrorism Courts that have existed for 18 years now,” he said.
TV analyst Moeed Pirzada said that despite all confusions and other issues, media fully supported Zarb-e-Azb, NAP, the execution of convicted terrorists and military courts. He said media played an important role in creating national consensus.
Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani of Gallup Pakistan said that while the sense of nationhood had grown in Pakistan over the past decade and the extremist view had been rejected by the mainstream, the problems had arisen due to mismatch of the socioeconomic indicators with the changing situation.
Legal expert Ahmer Bilal Soofi observed that the political and military leadership had on several occasions stated that the country was in a state of war, which he underscored, had legal implications.
The confusion, Soofi opined, was because of the absence of a clear distinction between the law of peace and law of war in the domestic context. The recently enacted 21st Amendment, he believed, also fell in the basket of law of war framework.
Dr Nazir Hussain of Quaid-e-Azam University mentioned the inadequate progress on the implementation of NAP. He suggested a three-month National Security emergency in the country.
Maj Gen Noel Khokhar, DG Institute of Strategic Studies, Research and Analysis at the National Defence University, in his concluding remarks said the attack on Army Public School Peshawar was a defining moment that produced extraordinary consensus against terrorism countrywide.
Khokhar underlined the need for continued policies that could ensure consistent action against militant groups so that the menace could be eliminated from the country.
Senior PPP leader and former federal minister Naveed Qamar hoped that this fight against terrorism was taken to a logical conclusion so that tragedies like Peshawar carnage did not happen again.
President CPGS Senator Sehar Kamran said: “The provisions of NAP point towards a remedy that lies ahead. However, its implementation needs strategic vision and farsightedness. The unity achieved in the aftermath of the Peshawar massacre needs to be strengthened further by aiming for the long term, all comprehensive and sustainable solutions to the problems.”
The consensus that has emerged after December 16 tragedy was unprecedented and needed to be built upon, she said adding that there was no space for extremism and violence in Pakistan.