‘National Action Plan to counter terrorism not fully implemented’

LAHORE: The National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism has not been fully implemented due to various reasons, including lack of civilian ownership of the plan for its execution, confusion on the definition of terrorism and absence of a national narrative on terrorism.

However, the successful Karachi operation and merger of the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (Fata) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were important achievements under the plan.

This was the crux of deliberations at a ceremony organised by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a German political foundation Pakistan and Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad based think-tank here Thursday to launch two reports - “Defining terrorism in Pakistan” and “Assessing the National Action Plan to counter terrorism and defining terrorism in Pakistan”. The speakers stressed the need to have a clear definition of terrorism and to execute the NAP in letter and spirit with its ownership by the government to eliminate terrorism from our country. They said 14 committees were formed to work on the NAP but only two of them became functional.

Hamayoun Khan, programme coordinator FES, briefly introduced both reports and explained working of FES in Pakistan. “These two reports have come out at very important time in our history, when we are facing sword of FATF for fairly long time and at a time when Pakistan has suffered for almost two decades from the menace of terrorism where we have lost more than 50,000 lives and billions of dollars and battle is still not over,” Khan said.

Amir Rana, head of PIPS and author of the reports, talked about content of both reports in details. He said definition of terrorism in Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 was broader and vague. “The Supreme Court of Pakistan asked Parliament of Pakistan in 2019 to define terrorism in Pakistan”. He explained how the report discussed all the issues related to defining terrorism. He also discussed contents of second report assessed the NAP to counter terrorism and extremism. “We need clarity of authority to make sure that NAP is implemented in Pakistan”.

Tariq Khosa, former senior police official who also headed FIA, termed both reports a timely intervention by FES and PIPS to bring the focus of government and other stakeholders back to the menace of terrorism in the country. “ATA 1997 used for political purposes to an extent that anti-terrorism courts overloaded with cases. This made these courts almost redundant,” he said, we lost focus.

“All stakeholders and political elements needs to sit together to define the pathway to fight terrorism,” he requested Barrister Shehzad Akbar, adviser to PM on interior and accountability to make sure recommendations of both reports would reach prime minister and parliament.

Aoun Sahi, senior journalist, said state must have made sure that control on use of violence was not given to any private militia. “These two reports must be discussed in the parliament and there is a dire need to have a clear legal definition of terrorism in Pakistan to make sure it is not misused,” he added.

Barrister Shehzad Akbar, adviser to PM on interior and accountability confessed that focus of government might have shifted from terrorism and extremism to other issues. He termed both reports a wakeup call and promised to take all the recommendations to the PM and parliament. He said all the stakeholders would have to play their role to eliminate the scourge of terrorism. “When the status quo is broken, then the problems will be solved”.

Those who spoke on the occasion included senior journalist Arshad Arif, Suhail Warraich, Imran Yuqub, religious scholar Maulana Raghib Naeemi and Dr Irum, chairperson of political science department of the Punjab University. Hamayoun Khan said FES will launch these two reports in all the provinces, administrative units and will continue generating debate on these important issues.