Action in Inertia

By SM Hali

                        [The National Action Plan (NAP) was evolved in the wake of the carnage at the Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 20 14, in which nearly 150 people were butchered, including some 132 school children. The initial shock and awe of the brutal massacre galvanized the politicians in uniting for formulating the NAP but pretty soon it became obvious that the unity was short-lived.  In fact, the attempt to present the NAP Bill in the National Assembly had to be abandoned because the ruling party, the PML-N, failed to garner the requisite number of assents as some key allies chose to themselves.  Ultimately, the Bill did make it through after the leader of the House, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his displeasure at the dissensions.  Even then the religious parties abstained from the ballot an expose of the peculiarly bent of mind of the orthodoxy!

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  Once the bill had been approved into law and it was time for implementation, it became evident, as in Shakespeare's Hamlet, that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark".  While the federal government is trying to implement the NAP, the provinces are not too eager about its implementation.  The government's whipping boy, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, expressed displeasure over the response of the provincial law enforcement authorities regarding the implementation of NAP and warned them to take the task seriously.  Chairing a high level meeting which reviewed the NAP, Nisar directed the police and officials of other security agencies to adopt a proactive approach on counter-terrorism as the country was in a state of war.  Officials from the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Federal Capital Police, the National Crisis Management Cell and intelligence agencies, along with officials from provincial home departments, attended the meeting.  Although senior officials wanted to give a presentation, they were stopped by the interior minister, who asked them to provide him concrete results over the implementation of NAP, which in turn embarrassed the officials.

It appears that each province has different grounds to harbor reservations.  The Baloch groups are reportedly running their training camps in Afghanistan or Iran.The interior ministry is seeking details about the Balochistan Republican Army, Balochistan Liberation Army, Balochistan Liberation Front, Balochistan Bunyad Parast Army, Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Balochistan Liberation United Front, Balchistan Musallah Defa Tanzeem, Balochistan Waja Liberation Army, Baloch Republican Party Azad, Balochistan United Army and Balochistan National Liberation Army, just to name a few of the organizations reportedly  engaged in anti-state activities. With such a serious insurgency, it is believably difficult to bring a sizable number of provincial politicians on board to support the execution of the NAP.  The province of Sindh, on the other hand, appears to have become a safe haven for terrorist groups.  The military's Operation Zarb-e-Azb in the tribal areas caused terror mongers to seek sanctuaries in other parts of the country.  The  cosmopolitan city of Karachi has the propensity to absorb diverse groups and let them remain incognito owing to its enormous population.  The Sindh Home Department is updating on behavioral changes of Al-Harmain Foundation, Rabita Trust, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Aman, Thafuz hadudullah, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the people's amn Committee.  Despite an across the board operation in the metropolis led the Rangers, so far there is not much to write home about.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's constraints are divers.  The province, which is in the vicinity of FATA and the Waziristan Agencies – erstwhile home to the harbingers of terror, has a number of sympathizers who will waylay any plan of the government to implement the NAP.  The coalition government of KPK comprises Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Jammat-e-Islami, both of which are conscientious objectors  to the federal government's plan of action.  additionally, the IS or Daesh has been distributing pamphlets in some parts of the province, inviting recruits. Simultaneously there have been rallies in Peshawar, eulogizing the assailants who targeted the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo.  With such dichotomy in their approach to terror, it is difficult to comprehend how the NAP will be successful in KPK.  Coming to the most populous province of Punjab, situation differs from the other provinces. It is ruled by Prime Minister Main Niawaz Sharif's younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who should prima facie be all out in support of implementing the NAP.  Unfortunately, his reluctance stems from other considerations.  South Punjab is considered a hub of miscreants as most of the militants of the Punjabi Taliban and other jihadi organizations belong to South Punjab.  According to media reports, intelligence agencies found out that SIM card that was in use of the TTP militants during their attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, belonged to a resident of Hasilpur district of Bahawalpur.  Interior Minister Chandhry Nisar Ali Khan has stated that at last 95 banned outfits were functioning in Punjab.  Nisar declared that law-enforcement agencies were proactively monitoring the madaris to check the spread of terrorist ideology in the country but a government critic has disclosed that despite repeated reminders by the media about the growing militant presence in the  province, the Shahbaz Sharif led Punjab government failed to check the spread of  such outfit and instead preferred to cohabitate with them.

Directives have been issued to the Federal Bureau of Revenue to ensure that funding to proscribed organizations is stopped.  Brotherly Muslim countries have also been asked to clamp down on the financers of sectarian and terrorist networks operating in Pakistan.  It has been recommended to the NAP committee that Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates should be asked to stop funding the  religious groups banned in Pakistan.  Reportedly, the minister visited Saudi Arabia to request its monarchy to use their good offices to help block the funding of proscribed groups in Pakistan.  There is an obstacle here too. Unfortunately most transactions are carried out through informal means such as Hawala and Hundi for transfer of money, which are difficult to keep a check on.  As far as proscribing terrorist organizations is considered, there is no specific mechanism for banning any outfit. If one head was chopped off, two more cropped up.  As soon as one groups is banned, it resurfaces under a new name.  Around 23 proscribed organizations are functioning with different names – like Jaish-e-Muhammad is operating as Khudam-e-Islam or Al-Rahmat Trust, Lashkar-e-Tayaba as Jamat-ud-Dawa (JUD and so on.  The prime minister has also directed the Ministry of Information Technology to take steps for blocking websites and social media plate forms used by terrorist outfits.  The federal government plans to table its draft cyber security bill in the National Assembly to ensure quick implementation of NAP against terrorism but the draft bill still misses several key areas like online blasphemy, cyber stalking, spamming and spoofing  which are considered serious offences in some other countries. Moreover, the new breed of terrorists is social media savvy and is conversant with the use of proxy servers to bypass firewalls.  In the current milieu, there is every danger of provincial politicians sabotaging the NAP and impeding its efforts towards success.  Such an outcome smacks of jeopardizing the process of democratization, which is still in its nascent stage in Pakistan.