Napping over the NAP

Why the government is dragging its feet?

Nine months since the political and military leadership drew consensus over the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP), its implementation still remains a dream.

While the bloodstains of the martyrs of the Army Public School, Peshawar, were yet to dry out, the civil and military leadership of the country sat together in the first week of January 2015 and agreed on NAP to rid the country of the scourge of extremism and terrorism.

Despite the fact that the military is almost ending its operation against hardcore terrorists in the rugged valleys, steep mountains and difficult terrain of Waziristan and other parts of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a lot has been left with the federal and provincial governments to do.

A major step however was taken towards the implementation of NAP on Thursday, September 10, when the Federal Apex Committee chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to smash sectarian outfits and hunt down sleeper cells in urban areas across the country.

Another welcome sign was the decision to observe zero tolerance against hate speech and hate literature and those found guilty to be treated under anti-terrorism laws. This resolve would soon be tested when the federal and provincial governments would go for lawmaking to disallow hate speech and hate literature. It would also be interesting how the government would be able to draw a balance to ensure freedom of speech while framing laws to ban the hate speech.

Despite the fact that the military is almost ending its operation against hardcore terrorists in the rugged valleys, steep mountains and difficult terrain of Waziristan and other parts of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a lot has been left with the federal and provincial governments to do

Aamir Rana, one of the top security analysts of the country and one of the authors of the 20-point NAP, says that the implementation process over the NAP has been sluggish recently and the prime minister should share the blame for this very failure.

“Though initially NAP’s implementation was swift and the army was evolved in the implementation mechanism and conducted thousands of intelligence based operations and nabbed hundreds of terrorists. But later the process saw a major drop down and I believe the problem was that the prime minister did not summon the apex committee, a commitment he had made in first meeting,” he said.

Rana says that now the real challenge in the implementation of NAP is for the Punjab government which has to take action against banned and proscribed sectarian organisations. He said that it is important to stop hate speech and ban hate literature.

“In other provinces, the challenges are minor as compared to Punjab. The law enforcers would have to smash small sleeper cells of terrorists in Karachi while Balochistan government would have to act more proactively against sectarian outfits,” he said and added that the military had almost neutralised the Baloch separatists.

“In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, problems are in the bordering areas where terrorists sneak inside and make smaller attacks,” he added.

He says that the anti-graft campaign had nothing to do with the implementation of NAP and it was being carried out under the Supreme Court’s orders.

Apparently, the buck stops with the prime minister himself. His family is ruling the country one way or the other. He is the prime minister of the country while his younger brother is the unquestionable authority in Punjab, the province which makes up 60 percent of the country.

The fault lies with the civilian leadership which lacks the commitment to implement all 20 points agreed upon under NAP.

The outburst by Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah during the apex committee meeting against the operations by FIA and NAB against PPP ministers and leaders under corruption charges reflects the frustration of the political leadership. Interestingly, the prime minister assured the chief minister Sindh of redressal of his grievances. It is a fact though that he had also made such promises with the MQM leaders but later could not stand on his commitment.

It appears that the civilian leaders want the army to crush the terrorists but they lack political will to block the supply of illicit money to the terrorist networks despite the fact that no government can defeat terrorism without plugging the pilferage of illicit money to the terror networks.

The ruling party, PML-N, is also ruling Balochistan — the biggest province of the country in terms of land resources, where a coalition government is in place. Sindh is being ruled by the PPP of Asif Zardari, who is another de facto ally of the prime minister. The terrorism-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the only place where a weak and ineffective opposition party, PTI, rules while FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan are also under the thumb of the prime minister. Azad Kashmir is another place where PPP rules other than Sindh.

Interestingly, the prime minister blamed all the provincial governments and those under administrative control of the federal government responsible for failing to implement the NAP. A million-dollar question remains unanswered whether it was a charge-sheet by prime minister against himself.

But this is not for the first time the prime minister has blamed the provinces showing slack on NAP. In April, the prime minister blasted the provinces for poor implementation of NAP while in May Nawaz Sharif held the Sindh government responsible for poor implementation of NAP.

With the recent probe summons served on Punjab’s ‘untouchable minister’ Rana Mashood, it seems as if the anti-graft drive has finally entered the elusive Punjab province and the untouchables are going to be brought to book

In August, for the first time, the premier blamed Punjab government for slackness and directed it to implement the NAP’s 20 points.

But if we look at the situation with an objective view, after having done its job in FATA it is the military leadership that seems to be pushing the civilian government to get urban areas cleaned of sleeper cells of the terrorists and their financiers, sympathisers and facilitators.

With the recent probe summons served on Punjab’s ‘untouchable minister’ Rana Mashood, it seems as if the anti-graft drive has finally entered the elusive Punjab province and the untouchables are going to be brought to book.

The interior ministry has prepared rules and regulations for monitoring the International Non-governmental Organisations (INGOs) and local NGOs while a policy draft over arms licenses and guidelines for the import of bullet-proof vehicles and bullet-proofing of vehicles inside Pakistan has also been worked out.

Under a de-weaponisation campaign, the government has also decided to cancel all the licenses of prohibited bore weapons by December this year and the weapon holders would be asked to apply for new licenses from next year.

With the operation now coming to Punjab, it would be a huge challenge for the prime minister to not only speed up the implementation of NAP but also to let the state institutions take action against all involved in corruption or illicit money which ultimately lands in the pockets of the terrorists one way or the other.

Since ill-gotten money provides oxygen to the terrorist networks and other mafias working against the interest of the state, it would be a challenge for the prime minister to allow the state institutions to bring all corrupt to book whether they belong to the ruling party or to the opposition.