Fighting terror demands unity of thought, action: Nisar

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Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday said there was no shift in policy of the PML-N government vis-à-vis the war on terror after May 11 polls and the entire nation as well as all state institutions would have to be united to deal with the menace of terrorism.

Speaking on a point of order during the National Assembly session, the interior minister said the PML-N leadership was clear on its stance that drone attacks and the war in Afghanistan had nothing to do with Pakistan but the attacks in our streets and mosques were definitely the problem of Pakistan.

He said the government was working on finalising a holistic national security policy as the magnitude of the menace of terror was huge.

“We are aware of the magnitude of the problem we are facing which is multi-dimensional. Though the challenge is huge, we are not yet prepared to deal with it. We are preparing our policy and we will seek input from the lawmakers, experts and all segments of society. We will also go for legislation in this regard besides some administrative measures,” he added.

He said it took the US two years to frame its national counterterrorism policy in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks. He said India took 20 years to chalk out a plan to deal with terrorism, while Sri Lanka took 30 years and Britain had to wait for 50 years to deal with the law and order.

He said under the proposed national security policy, the provincial governments would have to develop their indigenous intelligence systems to help devised a strategy to thwart terrorist attacks.

The minister said it was a welcome sign that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was already working on its strategy to develop its own intelligence system.

Nisar said Pakistan was facing an “unseen enemy” who, he said, was from within “our ranks” and were threatening our security.

He said the country would have to develop a multi-tier intelligence system for which better coordination was a must.

The interior minister said the provincial governments had CID and Special Branch and there was a dire need to activate these organs of the state. He said that the federal government was sharing its intelligence reports with all provincial governments.

Referring to the Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak, Nisar said the federal government had sent its successive intelligence reports to the KP government on July 24, 26 and 28.

However, he said, if the KP government could not effectively coordinate with the security agencies to thwart the jailbreak plan, the responsibility could not be shifted to the federal government.

He said the federal government would fully support the provincial governments.

Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Deputy Parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi endorsed the views expressed by Nisar on nature of the terror threat and said the provincial governments had no idea to deal with the menace of terror.

“The provincial governments can deal with normal law and order issues. But they lack equipment, training and awareness of the situation to deal with menace of terror,” he said, adding that a national counterterrorism plan was needed to meet the challenge that was grave in nature and was threatening the very basics of the country.

He urged the federal and provincial governments to take responsibility as passing the buck and point-scoring would not yield desired results.

Nafisa Shah of the PPP said terrorists had claimed lives of 300 people during the holy month of Ramazan and whether it were top officers of the police or the armed forces, all were targeted blatantly.

She said even labourers were targeted by miscreants in Balochistan. She hoped that the treasury and opposition benches would agree on a unanimous strategy to deal with terrorism.

Dr Arif Alvi and Kishwar Zehra expressed grave concerns over militant attacks on the worship places of Ismaili and Bohri minorities and said the leaders of both communities had took part in Pakistan Movement but they were now being targeted and the state was not taking action.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Now PMLN realised that "Fighting terror demands unity of thought, action".
    PMLN wasted last five years as they did't support last government against terrorism. On the other hand Punjab government supported terrorists.

    • Although I may agree with you on the part that PML-N didn't do anything in this regard the last 5 years but you have to remember,PPP for their entire tenure were on a mission of destruction,corruption and failure,so no one could have helped them in any way,shape or form.

    • PMLN supporters hv sympathy for Jihadis. How come their govt fight them. It needs coordination of mind and action. For 5 yrs they supported terrorists, now they lack ideological willpower to fight them. Nawaz Sharif is the first PM in history who did not address his nation during first three months. That indicates lack of sincerity and seriousness.

  2. Unity of thought before action, very well said. However, unity of thought requires a thinking mind, which is very rare. As the maxim goes that "I think therefore I am," this raises the question, have we started to think?

  3. When any progressive party demands fighting against these barbarians, they are grilled and interrogated as if they are some sort of traitors. And when these right wing parties come to same conclusions, nobody asks them why did they let these barbarians take hold of their strongholds and did not take action against them particularly in Punjab when they have been in power there and supporting these networks for last five years and two months.

  4. You can support whatever party you desire,but remember,you are a Pakistani first and foremost.Let me ask you this,how much off are the people of Pakistan compared to 10 years ago lets say ????? Terrorists killing innocent daily,that has never been this bad,load shedding,I can't remember it ever being this horrible,can you??? Economy is a mess,Rupee is worthless and getting worse by the day,education system is a joke and thats not even the half of it,politicians rule the country and ignore all the laws.Guess who is suffering???????????????? YOU THE PAKISTANI PEOPLE.Yet you still want to stay loyal to the PPP and PML-N ????? The 2 parties that have destroyed Pakistan. Maybe you need to give them time to get their arms around the issues,maybe they'll have better results this time around or maybe they'll get richer and disappear again like the lkast 2 times and let PPP come back to pick up where they left off and continue the destruction and looting.When are the people going to wake up??? when????

  5. Where was this guy (NISAR) during the stand off in Islamabad??? for 5 hours ???? He couldn't even handle a guy who was high on drugs and drunk on cheap booze,he wants to talk about unity of thought and action????

  6. he is unfit for the jo-wrong person destroyed by his mentor by placing him in wrong position.before he learns his in job detail,it would be too late for country.he should had been a deputy prime minister,holding industrial-technology ministry,but nawaz sharif only trusts his butcher finance minister-munshi,his sambundi acting as deputy prime minister.his

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