Commitment to implement NAP
LAW and order is necessary to deal with the difficulties that the country is currently facing and this is the responsibility of all national law enforcement agencies including the defence forces as well as the entire nation.
Under the National Action Plan, the defence forces have been able to thwart not only terrorism and sabotage through Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad but also foil other conspiracies against the country.
The role of the police and civilian law enforcement agencies which are subordinate to the provincial governments, is also crucial to bolster their efforts.
All the resources would have to be utilized to eradicate such crimes and the dream of peace in the country would remain unfulfilled till the provincial governments fulfil their elected responsibilities together with the Federation.
It is clear that until law and order is restored in the country, no one will come from abroad to invest nor will local investors will invest.
A comprehensive National Action Plan was prepared, the twenty-point agenda of the plan set out what steps would be taken to combat terrorism across the country with some responsibilities placed on the provinces as well, so that they will work with the federation to fight the scourge of terrorism but the provinces have not played their part and the federation has not fulfilled its responsibility correspondingly, Pakistan can’t even get out of the FATF’s grey list.
It has been the practice of every government to lay the blame for its shortcomings on others.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has also said that in the last four years, ignoring the role of the provinces in the National Action Plan has led to an increase in terrorism.
It has also been argued that legal and judicial reforms have not been made to ensure implementation of the National Action Plan, nor have the usual changes been made to the police and madrassa system.
The federal government’s National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NCTA) Pakistan was supposed to work with the provinces, but nothing has been done except claims that everything is fine.
This is not a time to blame each other but to make up for our shortcomings. National security is not a matter to be overlooked again or twice, each side has to do its job responsibly.
In this regard, it is also important to review the performance of the state mechanism, because if this mechanism was active, the provinces would implement the National Action Plan.
It would not take four years for the shortcomings to come to light, but we need to reconsider our shortcomings and move forward and implement this National Action Plan in its true spirit.
Whether it is our National Action Plan or any other plan at the national level, its full implementation is possible only when all the federating units work together with the Centre in the same direction and to achieve the same goal.
If the Federation and the provinces do not agree with each other or their efforts are not coordinated, then national development and stability become a dream, so it is necessary for the provinces to work with the Federation to ensure implementation of all points of the National Action Plan.
The nature of the threat is universal at the moment, national security and safety measures should be of the same level, otherwise the risk of instability increase is not out of the question.
There is no doubt that full implementation of the National Action Plan will go a long way in eradicating the scourge of terrorism, but despite the remarkable success in the war on terror, State measures in the plan to eradicate terrorism do not appear to be comprehensive and coherent.
Implementation of military operations, crackdowns and other measures can be used to control terrorism to some extent, but much more needs to be done to eradicate it.
Terrorism is becoming a disease across the country and social illnesses like physical illnesses can be cured not only by treating the symptoms or its effects, but also by treating its causes, otherwise the risk of recurrence after a while remains in place.
—The writer is a regular columnist, based in Lahore.
