Syed Khurshid Shah blasts the National Action Plan
Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah has criticized the working of NAP in the country.
Dunya News Reports (Yaruq Malik)
ISLAMABAD: The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah has expressed dissatisfaction over the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP). While talking to the reporters, Syed Khurshid Shah said that the federal government has made no progress in the implementation of NAP which is causing a new wave of terrorist attacks in the country.
Mr. Shah has also demanded a judicial probe into the recent terrorist attacks on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and the Army Public School (,) attacks in Peshawar. He said that the people of Pakistan want to know who is behind the attacks and an in-depth inquiry should be conducted.
Moreover, he claimed that only 60 cases have been sent to the military courts under NAP out of the 30,000 major cases and that puts a question mark on the level of progress the federal government has made thus far.
“What progress can we expect on the NAP if terrorism cases are sent to military courts at this pace? We do not know what happened in the Army Public School and Charsadda University. I ask the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to conduct a judicial investigation into the two tragedies,” the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader said.
Khurshid Shah also accused the federal government of terrorizing its political opponents by the use of force. He warned the Prime Minister of the consequences and said that these ‘terror tactics’ by the federal government will harm democracy in Pakistan.
“The Prime Minister should stop such state terrorism. Otherwise it will not be a good omen for democracy,” the PPP leader said.
On the other hand, the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that the people criticizing NAP have no idea about its working contents. He claimed that Pakistan is winning the military war against terrorism but at the same time it is losing the ‘psychological war’ against terror.
He criticized the opposition for creating a negative atmosphere while the country is on a war against terrorism.
“Whenever there is an attack, a storm begins. We behave exactly how our enemies want by creating an atmosphere of fear. People criticize the government saying no progress has been made,” said the Interior Minister.
The current dispute between the Sindh government under the Pakistan People’s Party and the federal government under Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz hovers around the same issue. PPP believes that the Rangers should work under the CM under all circumstances. The federal government is of the belief that the Rangers are operating under the National Action Plan which was accepted by all the parties including the PPP.
Previously, Khairunnisa Mughal from the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians said that the Interior Ministry has its focus only towards the province of Sindh whereas there is no ban on Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Punjab. She questioned the federal government for not imposing a ban on Hafiz Saeed under the NAP.
A possible operation lead by the Rangers is due to operate in Punjab if the ruling party accepts the recommendation put up by the army leadership in a high-level meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The military establishment thinks that the Punjab police do not have the required equipment or the training to fight terrorists. Therefore, the army leadership recommended that the Rangers should be given the responsibility in Punjab to track and eliminate terrorist networks.
According to experts, the Punjab government would emphasize the utilization of its own Elite Force instead of calling the Rangers for an operation in Punjab as it would create a negative image of the provincial government and its forces. However, it is said that if the Rangers do operate in Punjab, they would have the same powers as they had during the Karachi operation.
With Punjab’s provincial government insisting on using its own Elite Force for a possible operation in Punjab, the tensions between Sindh and Punjab are expected to take another high toll in the coming weeks.
