- National Action Plan gets new lease of life
One area in which the problem-prone incumbent government really needed to ‘do more’ lay in the realm of NAP, and in the stern implementation of its 20 points to counter terror threats. Stung into anguished action by the horrific 2014 Army Public School slaughter, the government set up NAP as a comprehensive, concerted attempt to stamp out the terrorist-extremist scourge root and branch, but despite some outstanding successes in Karachi and KP, the overall momentum was not maintained on important aspects, and NAP was soon overtaken and dominated by mainly military operations, leaving the secondary, but still vital elements of the Plan in the doldrums, such as addressing extremism (including in Punjab), madrassa reform, terror financing, banned outfits, sectarian violence, hate speech and minorities. Meetings of the National Security Committee for assessing its progress were called few and far between, in the first instance after a lapse of nineteen months after its formation and that too following the Quetta bombing targeting lawyers. Frankly, the political will and bureaucratic infrastructure vital to the ultimate success of the ambitious venture were sadly lacking, as were bold and focused long-term actions to implement it. Still, the NAP successes till March 2017 included 1,865 terrorists killed and over 5,000 wounded, over 98.3 million SIMS blocked, and in Karachi, an avowed reduction in terrorism by 90 percent.
On Monday, in a welcome, urgently desired move, the top-level National Security Committee, under PM chairmanship and attended by the interior minister, national security advisor (NSA) met with armed forces chiefs to appraise progress and overhaul admitted deficiencies in NAP under the changed circumstances. Particular emphasis was laid on fresh policy guidelines and (no surprises here) institutional reforms, the first involving the finalising of the long delayed National Security Policy with a fresh counter-narrative to combat terrorism, the second the effective rejuvenation of languishing National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), formation of a joint intelligence directorate and a coordination body to ensure proper enforcement of measures this time. The NSA was tasked with early consensual finalisation of National Security Policy. But, in the end, all programmes are vain, unless properly implemented.
