And a lack of action on the “No Action Plan”
The two year tenure of the military courts set up to try “jet black terrorists” will end next month. A legal void would be created in case a new arrangement is not in place to try the hundreds of terrorists awaiting trial. The Senate has already fulfilled its responsibility by passing an anti-terrorism bill and the Witness Protection Bill to fill the gap. The two bills piloted by the leader of the house and the leader of the opposition have already been sent to the National Assembly. The slow moving Interior Ministry has belatedly prepared the draft of a new law, integrating the Protection of Pakistan Act and Anti-Terrorism Act, and has sought opinion of the law ministry on it. How much time the bureaucratic process will take is not clear. The task should have been finished last month so that a legal measure was in place before January 7 after debate in National Assembly.
Equally important is to urgently implement the National Action Plan which has suffered mainly due to the negligence of the Interior Ministry. The report of the Justice Faez Issa Inquiry Commission set up by the Supreme Court exposes the serious lapses in the execution of the NAP which has led the critics to call it ‘No Action Plan’. The Ministry of Interior was required to play a central role in the execution of the plan by determining who would be responsible for implementing its different components, monitor progress (or the lack thereof), and in the case of failure to achieve compliance through follow up action. The Government failed to fix time frames for achieving the 20 goals spelt out in NAP, immediately activate NACTA (which was to prepare a counter-narrative) and initiate a deradicalisation programme. With no clear cut duties assigned to officials, nobody was held responsible. As the Inquiry report puts it: “The aforesaid discrepancies show that at the highest levels of government the subject of terrorism and combating it is epitomised with confusion”. The government needs to be fully focused on what happens to be an existential issue for Pakistan.
