Govt misses four deadlines set for NAP

A week has passed since lapse of deadlines for trials of terror suspects in military courts, disbanding armed militias and eliminating hate speech and extremist material

Defence Ministry official says military has already announced establishment of nine courts and provincial home departments are coordinating with Interior Ministry for transfer of cases to these courts

Despite Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s utmost efforts to ensure full implementation of the 20-point recommendations agreed upon by the political and military leaderships to uproot terrorism and militancy in the country, the government has failed to meet at least the first four deadlines while others are also likely to be missed.

Sources in the federal and provincial governments and documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that despite the fact that the federal government took many initiatives to meet these deadlines, the lacklustre performance of the provincial governments led to failure in achieving the objectives.

NO ‘SPEEDY’ TRIALS IN SPECIAL COURTS YET:

The parliament, Law Ministry, JAG, General Headquarters (GHQ), attorney general and prime minister’s special assistants Zafarullah Khan and Khawaja Zaheer had been tasked on December 26, 2014 to ensure the establishment of special military courts and start trials of terror suspects by January 15, 2015. Though nine military courts have been formed by the military, the government has not yet forwarded any cases to these courts.

The GHQ on January 9 announced to form nine military courts to try “jet-black” terrorists. Out of the nine courts, three courts were formed in Punjab, three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), two courts in Sindh and one in Balochistan.

However, the courts failed to start hearing of terrorism cases in the military courts by January 15 –– the deadline set by the PM himself.

OTHER DEADLINES MISSED:

Moreover, the government also failed to meet the deadline set to put the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) into action.

Furthermore, the Interior Ministry, NACTA, provincial home departments, armed forces, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), and law enforcement agencies including FC, Rangers and Police had been tasked to ensure that no armed militias are allowed to function in the country. The deadline for the task was January 15.

However, sources said that the Interior Ministry was informed by intelligence agencies that terrorists in Balochistan and South Punjab were still at large and “openly carry weapons”.

Two other deadlines have also been missed.

Strengthening and activation of NACTA was tasked to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar but the deadline of January 15 has passed.

The task of countering hate speech and extremist materiel was assigned to the Interior Ministry, provincial home departments, Religious Affairs Ministry, Auqaf departments, the law enforcement agencies and the ISI and IB. The deadline for the task was fixed at January 15 but the provinces have failed to meet this deadline as well.

NO DOUBT OVER ARMY’S INTENTIONS:

When contacted by Pakistan Today, an official source in the Defence Ministry said that the military had announced the establishment of nine military courts on January 9, adding that the provincial home departments were coordinating with the Interior Ministry for transfer of cases to the military courts.

The decision to set up military courts was taken in the backdrop of the civilian leadership’s concerns over threats to the judiciary while dealing with terrorism cases.

“During the All Parties’ Conference summoned after the Peshawar attack, the civilian leadership said that the terrorists used to threaten judges and that due to the flaws in the law of evidence and other relevant laws, the conviction of terrorists had been a problem. Moreover, the leaders raised concerns over attacks on defiant judges by terrorists who operated even from jails. The judges were also threatened that their families would be attacked. Resultantly, the judges used to keep such cases pending or excused themselves from hearing these cases. In order to meet these challenges, the army came up with the idea of trying hardcore terrorists in military courts,” the official said.

The US and other states had also established military courts to try terrorists, he said, adding, “No NGO, human rights organisation or any judicial forum raised questions over the establishment of military courts in the US as the American nation had united against the menace of terrorism after 9/11.”

“However, it is unfortunate to see people raising questions over the military’s intentions in Pakistan,” the official said, as he clarified the procedure to be adopted to finalise the cases which would be tried in military courts.

“The provincial apex committees would finalise cases to be tried by the military courts. Later, such cases would be forwarded by the provinces to the Interior Ministry which will consult the Law Ministry to finalise the cases to be tried by the military courts.”

The official said that there were no “favourites” and action was being taken against all proscribed militant organisations by the Pakistan government, adding that Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asim Bajwa also recently snubbed a US television anchor in an interview over such a question.

OTHER DEADLINES APPROACHING SOON:

On December 26, the PM had formed 20 committees and deadlines were given to the committees to implement the decisions taken during the APC.

A steering committee to review progress on periodic basis was formed with the PM as its head and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Information Mnister Pervaiz Rashid, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, SAFRON Minister Abdul Qadir Baloch, PM’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, PM’s Special Assistant Barrister Zafarullah Khan and KP Governor Mehtab Abbasi as members.

An operational committee at the level of the Interior Ministry had also been formed to review operational progress. For each of the action outline in the National Action Plan (NAP), there are also sub-committees as well as intra-government/ ministerial committees for actions that cut-across. A detailed implementation plan and performance measurement criteria is to be developed for each action while a communication strategy is in progress.

Moreover, a committee was formed comprising the president, governors, services chiefs, provincial governments and jail superintendents for execution of convicted terrorists. Its deadline was fixed at March 1, 2015. This deadline is likely to be missed as there are many accused who have been given death sentence but have not been executed yet.

Balochistan’s apex committee has forwarded its request to the federal government to issue black warrants of 14 accused which have been handed the death sentence by anti-terrorism courts. Punjab, Sindh and KP governments have also forwarded similar requests to the federal government.

Moreover, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor, law enforcement agencies, Customs and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been tasked to pull the plug on finances of terrorists and terrorist organisations. Though initial steps have been taken, the task has not been fully implemented yet.

The Interior Ministry, home departments, ISI, IB and law enforcement agencies had been directed to ensure re-emergence of banned organisations but no deadline had been set for the completion of the task.