Revisiting NAP

We have been hearing for long that the government – in fact, successive governments – has zero tolerance for terrorism. But in reality we see that there have been repeated terrorist attacks, and after each attack we go through the same exercise of condemnations, promises of setting an example, and taking on terrorism with an iron hand. Yet again, Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a meeting of the apex committee on the National Action Plan (NAP) and called for swift prosecution of terrorists. When NAP emerged – post the APS tragedy – as a comprehensive document outlining Pakistan’s strategy to counter the threat of terrorism in the country, there was strong hope that terrorism would breathe its last soon. The document was multi-faceted and covered nearly all aspects of the terror challenge. But somewhere down the road something went wrong and we were unable to implement NAP per expectations. The approach to implement NAP required a certain vigour and vitality that just hasn’t been seen.

Thwarting the threat of terrorism is not an easy task anywhere in the world, but the way Pakistan became a target was unprecedented in the country’s history. Our security forces – civil and military – have all worked hard to stem the onslaught of terrorism. Thousands have lost their lives in the countless terrorist attacks the country has seen. The latest attack in Peshawar has once again demonstrated that terrorism is still a potent force that is blighting our nation. There is a need to ask some fundamental questions once again. The first is about why we failed to actively follow the suggestions NAP offered. NAP was always meant to be more comprehensive than just military operations in the tribal areas. The main challenge was to fight the ideology of militant groups to halt its spread around the country. We needed some proactive efforts to forestall the root causes of terrorism but we failed to do so, despite claims to the contrary by successive governments in power.

There is also the glaring fact that terrorism has resurfaced in the past one year, especially after the Taliban takeover in Kabul. Though the government seems to wish to ignore a possible connection between the two, we cannot overlook the way extremists have emboldened themselves after the Taliban victory in Afghanistan. To defeat the menace of terrorism, we need to come clear on our policies both nationally and internationally. NAP’s apex committee has once again stressed the need for strengthening the National Counter Terrorism Authority’s role. This authority is responsible for coordination measures to combat terrorism. But this coordination is in dire need of some dedicated rebuilding. It is only when various strands of data are combined and intelligently analysed that it becomes workable. This requires trust between agencies and the willingness to share intelligence with Nacta. The only hope of achieving that is for Nacta to be fully-staffed and operational. There is also a need to build the capacity of counterterrorism departments across the country. The world has progressed a lot in counterterrorism tactics in the past 20 years or so and there is a need to adopt scientific techniques for investigation. We don't even have state-of-the-art forensic labs in all major cities. The renewed attention given to NAP and Nacta is certainly welcome but the prime minister will now have to follow through since the terrorism challenges facing country cannot be addressed overnight.