- Interior minister says internal security of country affected by internal, regional and geo-political factors
- Criticises former govts for not devising any strategy to deal with the issue
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that consistent efforts, strict monitoring and fine-tuning are needed to deal with challenge of internal security.
A multi-faceted, multi-pronged and multi-dimensional responsibility exists and needs to be dealt with, he said. Nisar stressed that we must think beyond ourselves and think of internal security as a national issue and obligation.
The interior minister expressed these views during his meeting with 30 newly promoted major generals who were participating in Command and Leadership course at National Defence University (NDU) Islamabad on Monday.
Chaudhry Nisar said that the internal security of the country is affected by internal, regional and geo-political factors where besides our known enemies, there are others in the garb of friends who want to benefit by creating instability in the country.
He said that it is quite unfortunate that despite the huge sufferings and tragedies incurred during past years, no internal security policy or framework could be devised by the previous governments. Hundreds and thousands of lives were lost; 5-6 explosions were a daily occurrence across the length and breadth of the country; life and property became the most unsafe commodity – and yet previous governments continued to turn a blind eye over the issue.
The present government for the first time ever formulated the internal security policy of the country, besides conceiving and implementing the National Action Plan last year. While recounting various challenges in the way to formulating an internal security policy, the Minister RECALLED that the real challenge in June 2013 lay not only in dealing with the militants, but also in taking to task sympathisers who supported extremists and militants.
The interior minister said that after the APS incident, the nation’s first national action plan to deal with the menace of terrorism was chalked out in the shortest possible time. It had the complete consensus of all political forces.
Since then, the minister continued, there was a marked improvement in the overall security situation. He said that it would be quite unfair to feign ignorance to successes that have been made under NAP, which were made possible only through the continued efforts of our armed forces including the security and intelligence agencies.
He said that under NAP a robust three layered security mechanism comprising of police, civil armed forces and the army has been put in place in all the major cities of the country. The improvement in the security paradigm has occurred due to the unity and consensus evolved over the last year. Civil military understanding corroborated by political consensus has been the single largest contributing factor in improving the security situation in the country.
