Ministry set to challenge Quetta Commission report in SC

ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry has completed preparations to challenge the Quetta Commission report in the Supreme Court, said the ministry’s spokesman on Tuesday. The report has raised some points criticising the interior minister for going soft in the fight against terrorism.

Responding to the statements of the chief minister Sindh and spokesman for the Sindh government, the spokesperson of the Ministry has said that it is quite unfortunate that a national security issue has been used for political point scoring without any substantive grounds and ignoring the on-ground facts.

The spokesman said that the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) is a collective responsibility of the Federation and the federating units with major points falling into the administrative domain of the provincial governments.

Regarding glorification of terrorists in the media, he said that it is a matter of record that independent and free media of the country has shown great responsibility and maturity vis-à-vis glorification and promotion of terrorism.

To remind, as a result of interior minister’s meeting with representative bodies of media – APNS, CPNE, PBA and PFUJ – the independent media gave a commitment to blackout the terrorists, he said. It is a matter of record that the media proved true to its commitment.

The spokesperson said that the accusation against the federal government alleging them of allowing banned organisations to hold rallies and meeting openly is factually incorrect. He said that the policy of the federal government towards the proscribed organisations is very clear and no proscribed organisation was allowed to hold rallies or public meeting.

He pointed out that for the first time in the history of the country, the present government has put in place a robust mechanism for proscription of organisations and individuals besides maintaining digital database of such organisations/individuals. The spokesperson said that checking the activities of the proscribed organisations/individuals and initiation of action for any violation is the provincial responsibility.

“I wish the Sindh government takes into consideration the record of both the Federal and the Sindh governments from 2008-2013 vis a vis proscribed organisations and their cohorts,” continued the spokesperson. With regards to objection raised over the functionality of Nacta, he said that from a merely dormant organisation existing only on papers, Nacta is now fully operational and supplementing the state security institutions.

For the first time since its inception, practical steps were taken by the present government to make Nacta fully functional. It is a matter of record that during the tenure of the previous government, Nacta was housed in a rented building with hardly any human resource and sufficient funds to operate.

Under the current government, not only funds were released to Nacta but the issue of infrastructure and human resource was also resolved, he said. The spokesperson said that at present 104 officers are working in Nacta performing various duties that fall under the mandate of the authority.

He said that the budget of the organisation for the year 2016-17 stands at Rs1,450 million, which clearly manifests the resolve of the federal government to make Nacta a vibrant organisation.