The heinous attack on the Army Public School Peshawar on 16 December 2014 in which 142 persons including 132 children were brutally massacred by the TTP galvanized the Pakistani nation into action. The National Action Plan was formulated, the Army renewed its resolve to target the terrorists with vigour but the civilian government dithered in the execution of the NAP.
In January 2015, following the APS carnage, in a knee jerk action, apex committees were formed to expedite the implementation of the NAP. Fifteen committees and sub-committees were set up to execute the NAP but no plausible developments were witnessed. Ironically, the inability on the part of government was rationalized through a false projection of serious civil-military trust deficit on issues related to NAP’s implementation. Some political quarters even raised false alarms of a military take-over.
The lack of intent by the civilian government is evident from the fact that the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), created to implement NAP is the victim of gross neglect. To add insult to injury, lack of allocation of resources for NACTA in the last annual budget, non framing of service rules for the authority has made the organization impotent. Such callousness speaks volumes for the civilian government’s lack of intent for tackling terrorism seriously. Interestingly, NACTA’s budget stands at Rs 92 million a year of which Rs 63 million goes into the salaries of the staff, which leaves peanuts for counter terrorism, its primary mission.
NAP comprises twenty action points. A cursory look at the scorecard indicates that little more than lip sympathy has been provided to eradicate the scourge of terrorism despite a plan of action reached upon with broad consensus.
Take the case of Madrassa reforms, the government is yet to come out with an authentic and final figure about the number of Madrassas existing in the country; what to talk of reforming their syllabus or tracking the sources of their financing. While the judiciary takes pride in being fair and free, over the past four years, 14,115 persons in terrorism-related cases were acquitted and 10,387 were granted bail while only one hundred were sent to the gallows. For the European Union, these figures may be welcome but for a country like Pakistan—plagued by terror attacks, where law enforcing agencies painstakingly track and apprehend the hardened criminals—to see the miscreants or their abettors go scot free is not only disappointing but some cynics call it a travesty of justice.
Similarly, the source of terror funding if plugged, can reduce if not eliminate terror attacks. Ill-gotten finances provide oxygen to the terrorist networks and other mafias working against the interest of the state. It is unfortunate that some of the terror funding sources lead to the doorsteps of corrupt politicians.
Participants;
Tahira Abdullah (Human Rights Defender)
Imtiaz Gul (Senior Analyst)
Host: S. M. Hali