Some critical questions interior minister must answer
Ch Nisar has presented a 100-page report on national security policy before the National Assembly. The original report was earlier put before the cabinet but its copies were taken back from the ministers at the conclusion of the meeting. Obviously the cabinet members were supposed to endorse the report without fully understanding its content or implications. The report presented before the NA too had been put at the table of the house instead of being circulated among the members. One can understand the need for keeping certain things secret but when secrecy becomes a part of the mindset it can cause more harm than good. The interior minister wants to develop a political consensus to deal with terrorism. He has urged the political parties to assist the government instead of being critical of it. This is not possible unless the government is prepared to share the necessary information with them. What the leader of opposition said on the floor of the house negated Ch Nisar’s claim of having taken political leaders on board all the time. The prime minister has responded to the concerns expressed by Khurshid Shah promising to regularly seek the opinion of the leaders of parliamentary parties.
Equally symptomatic is Ch Nisar’s lack of patience with the media. He complained that the media unjustly critcised him. It is the media’s responsibility to keep a watch on the government’s performance and the leaders’ statements in the larger public interest. The media maintains across the board vigilance and recognises no holy cows. It has acted as public tribune in the past and will continue to do so in future. There is no need to be jittery about it. It is also not for the interior minister to advise the media regarding how it should or should not report on the TTP or any other organization.
The Nisar security plan envisages a focal position for the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) which is an independent body answerable directly to the prime minister. Under the Act, there is to be a board of governors of NACTA headed by the prime minister, the interior minister being one of its members. It is now being proposed to hand over the body to interior ministry which is inappropriate. The NACTA will control 26 intelligence agencies in the country, including the ISI, MI and IB. It is widely understood that only the prime minister possesses the clout to make them work as a team. Ch Nisar reportedly plans to spend Rs28 billion in the first year only. Once he referred to the US Homeland Security which he said had hired 40,000 people from different fields to correlate the intelligence. While a superpower can afford funds and manpower of the magnitude Pakistan cannot. The NACTA should comprise a lean and mean organization, rather than an empire presided over by the interior minister.
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