- Interior minister says army will be withdrawn from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if provincial govts do not invoke Article 245
- Govt decides to raise 5000-strong counter-terrorism force
Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Wednesday told the governments of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan that 10,000 army troops stationed in the provinces to assist security forces would be withdrawn if deployment requisitions were not made under Article 245 of the Constitution.
While addressing a meeting of the parliamentary leaders held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the Prime Minister’s House for evolving Anti-Terrorism National Action Plan (ATNAP), the interior minister said, “After the initiation of Operation Zarb-i-Azb, the government has realised that the police is neither equipped nor trained and would require time to tackle the current law and order crisis.”
“In order to deal with the reaction of the operation, the army chief has told the government that the military was willing to help and support the federal and provincial administrations. However, the requisition of the army is needed to be made under Article 245 of the Constitution,” the federal minister further added.
“Except for the federal and Punjab governments, the other three provinces have yet to send their requests under Article 245. Two days ago, the Interior Ministry wrote its latest letter to the three provinces stating that if the requisition is not done under Article 245, the troops would be withdrawn,” the interior minister maintained.
“I request that the army’s stance of seeking requisition under Article 245, which is completely legitimate, should be entertained because when the army conducts any action against terrorists without this article’s cover, courts can summon army personnel and officers on request of the terrorists’ heirs or representatives,” Nisar said, adding that in such situations, the accountability of army personnel involved in the action is initiated, resulting in distraction from the army’s core duty of fighting against terrorism.
“It is the army only which is working as a rapid response force as per details received by us.”
Briefing the parliamentary parties’ meeting, the interior minister said that the participants of the Anti-Terrorism National Action Plan Committee (ATNAP) agreed to raise a force of 5,000 personnel to counter terrorism. He added that the army would prepare and train this force, which will be deployed 1,000 each in federal capital and the four provinces.
The interior minister said that there was a consensus among the committee members that effective coordination among the civil-military leadership would be imperative for eliminating terrorism. He said the committee emphasised proactive efforts to check financial support to terrorists and their communication networks.
Nisar said that the members also underlined the need to update the Red Book of the most wanted people regularly and called for ensuring that banned organisations do not re-emerge with different names.
Furthermore, the minister made it clear that glorification of terrorists on the media will be totally banned, and if required, a law could be made for the purpose.
