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Thursday March 28, 2024

NA winds up debate on Peshawar school incident

MQM members stage walkout from House as protest against killing of party workers

By our correspondents
January 13, 2015
ISLAMABAD: The government informed the National Assembly on Monday that implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism had been expedited and daily reports were being sought from the four provinces and different organisations on the progress made in this connection.
Winding up the debate on a motion on the terrorist attack on the Army Public School Peshawar, Minister of State for Interior Balighur Rehman said the federal government and the provinces have registered cases against those involved in hate speech and seven cases have been registered only in Islamabad.
Balighur Rehman said that the post-Peshawar tragedy developments are a clear indication that the nation is fully resolved to root out the menace of terrorism. “Daily reports on the implementation of NAP are being submitted to the prime minister,” he said.
The minister said the Joint Intelligence Directorate and Directorate of Internal Security are being established as part of the implementation of the Action Plan. He said the finance minister is holding regular meetings to ensure blocking of funding sources of terrorism in close cooperation with relevant organisations.
Balighur Rehman said a decision has been taken to deploy a dedicated counter-terrorism force. For this purpose 1,000 troops each would be provided to every province and 500 troops to Islamabad and Gilgit Baltistan.
He said the ministries of education and religious affairs are closely working to reform the curriculum with a view to promoting tolerance and mutual understanding.About the registration of Madaris, he said all representative bodies of Madaris have expressed their willingness to cooperate in the process.
He said there are 150 million SIMs in the country, out of which 103 million would be verified through the biometric verification system in four months. Balighur Rehman said the process for identification and repatriation of Afghan refugees has also been initiated.
He said over Rs90 million have been distributed among families of the martyrs and injured of the Peshawar school tragedy.Earlier, taking part in debate, Mahmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party said the menace of terrorism could be tackled if there is will and determination. He proposed that a conference of regional countries should be convened to formulate a joint strategy to confront terrorism.
Ayaz Soomro of PPP said the entire nation is on one page as for as fight against terrorism is concerned. He demanded that the government should improve its intelligence gathering to prevent Peshawar like tragedies.
Dr. Afzal Dhandla of PML-N said the unanimous resolution adopted by the National Assembly against terrorism has sent a clear message to terrorists and outside world that the people of Pakistan are united under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to eliminate terrorism.
Shazia Mari of PPP said elected leadership of KP should have been in the forefront in the aftermath of Peshawar incident saying the Parliament even adopted a constitutional amendment to make campaign against terror more effective.
Khusro Bakhtiar of PML-N said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif played a lead role after December 16 to forge national consensus on counter-terrorism strategy.Mehbub Alam of MQM said terrorism can be eliminated if our intelligence agencies perform their duties responsibly saying that local government system and Mohalla level vigilance committees could help check terrorism. Aasiya Naz Tanoli of PML-N while strongly condemning the Peshawar tragedy said nobody could describe the pain of the families who lost their children in the terrorists act.
Meanwhile during the question hour the National Assembly was informed that India committed 243 violations of ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary during the year 2014.
Sartaj Aziz Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs, in a written reply told the House that in 2014 they have recorded 243 ceasefire violations along LoC and WB, peaking in October 2014 with 71 violations.
The statements said that the government of Pakistan took various initiatives to bring into international focus the Indian forces hostile acts, impressing upon the need to strengthen mandate of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) given to it by the United Nations Security Council.
“We also impressed upon the UN to carry out impartial inquiry through UNMOGIP into ceasefire violations,” the statement of the Adviser said.The House was informed that on 31st December, the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) resorted to unprovoked firing across the Working Boundary (WB). The BSF troops called for casual contact at WB, signaling white flag and blowing whistle. In response to Indian call, four Pakistan soldiers approached the WB for the meeting who were fired upon by BSF which resulted in martyrdom of two personnel of Punjab Rangers.
The statement said on 2nd January, the Adviser wrote a letter to the Indian Minister for External Affairs to register strong protest against the incident.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi during the proceedings announced that four members belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) including Rai Hassan Nawaz, Shafqat Mahmood, Munaza Hassan and Ayesha Gulalai are absent from the House without seeking leave of the Assembly for consecutive forty days from 7th of August last year.
The annual report of the State Bank on the state of the economy for 2013-14 was laid before the House.Parliamentary Secretary for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shehzadi Umerzadi Tiwana, while responding to a call attention notice, said KP government has appointed a Commission to investigate into reported theft of oil from Karak oil field. She said preventive measures have been taken to ensure that no such incident takes place in future.
As the absence of cabinet members marred proceedings of the National Assembly during question hour on Monday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan maintained there was no justification for ministers to remain absent from the House.
“The ministers not present in the House to respond to questions have no right to remain in office,” Chaudhry Nisar speaking on floor of the House said.Before end of the session, the MQM parliamentarians staged walkout from the House as a protest against killing of party workers. As Dr. Farooq Sattar completed his speech on point of order, the MQM members walked out of the proceedings while raising slogans.
MQM leader Farooq Sattar accused the Sindh government of indulging in extra-judicial killing of his party workers saying that the situation is intolerable for them. The PPP parliamentarian Ejaz Jhakrani who hails from Sindh, however, rejected impression of extra-judicial killings in Karachi saying that the operation was targeted against criminals which would continue till achieving objectives.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmad coming to rescue of ministers said the Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir could not come to the House as he was trapped in traffic.
However, Interior Minister observed that traffic jams, fog or bad weather should not become excuses for minister to come to the National Assembly session. He was of the view that the government was answerable to the Parliament requesting the chair to defer the question hour till the next day.