MPs want to know who owns National Action Plan

ISLAMABAD: Legislators in the Senate Monday wanted to know who had the ownership of the National Action Plan (NAP) while taking the government to task for making it irrelevant by its non-implementation.
Opposition senators were concerned over the setting aside of the National Action Plan that was thrashed out by the civilian and military leadership with consensus to deal with the menace of terrorism following the Peshawar school carnage.
Speaking on a motion moved by Senator Sitara Ayaz of Awami National Party ANP), the lawmakers called on the federal government to take effective steps for implementation of NAP to crush terrorism.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar criticised what he said the executions by tweets without even a word about who the criminals were, when and where they were tried, the charges against them, the prosecution’s case and the defence pleas, and called for laying down procedures for the military courts.
“This new state policy of executions by tweets if not checked will result in severe backlash. The government and the Parliament should have laid down procedures for the military courts to ensure some minimal measure of transparency and accountability in the trial before military courts,” he maintained.
He said that while step had been taken such as blocking SIMS the core issues promised in the National Action Plan have been ignored, adding another disturbing feature was that decision making seemed to have shifted from civil-political to the military.
“This is evident from the holding of the apex committee meetings in the air bases and offices of security establishment,” he said, adding that due to the absence of rules of engagement of the apex committees it appeared that they were treading in the domains of the provinces in the name of security.
Babar called for adoption of rules for apex committees as well as the conduct of trials in the military courts.MQM’s Senator Col(R) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said that the government seemed proactive in the first few weeks of the NAP but after 2-3 television talk shows, it went into complete hibernation.
He believed that the government had the golden opportunity to eradicate the menace of terrorism and the militancy as it had the support of the whole nation, political parties and media, adding that it was for the first time both civil and military leaderships were on the same page over rooting out the menace of terrorism.
Mashhadi contended that the government allowed the banned outfits to hold rallies instead of taking action against them. “Non-action has shocked the whole nation. It is the lack of action by the government against the militants and the terrorists in southern Punjab – a hotbed of Punjabi Taliban, which is alarming masses,” he charged.
He said that there was no action taken against the seminaries which were allegedly harbouring the militancy, adding the contradiction in statements of the government with the donors showed how seriously the government was taking the war against terrorism.
“The Senate was informed by the Punjab government that seminaries in Punjab were getting no foreign funding while the other day Saudi Arabia said it is funding in billion to the seminaries in Punjab…what to say in these circumstances as government denying any foreign funding while the donor claims of sending money in billions”, he regretted.
Maulana Attaur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) called for reviewing the 21st constitutional amendment, saying parliament was pushed against the wall through this amendment and it needs to be revisited.
“No doubt the killing of innocent children in Peshawar on Dec 16, 2014 was no less than 9/11 for us, and there should be action against the terrorist whether he is bearded, or wearing tie, [as] the terrorist is a terrorist… but I want to ask who will raise for those 83 children who were killed at a seminary in Bajaur,” he maintained.
Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan could not turn up to the house due to his engagements with regards to the visit of Chinese president. Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani said that the minister will wind up by next rota day. The Senate was prorogued sine die.