LAHORE - Speakers at a seminar have criticised the National Action Plan (NAP) and termed it an incomplete document. Some of them were of the view that government has taken initiative and hopefully it would yield results in future.
The seminar was held on the topic of ‘National Action Plan-Targets, hurdles and collective responsibility’ at a local hotel under the aegis of Pakistan Journalists Foundation (PJF) yesterday.
Among the speakers included Federal Minister for Defense Production Rana Tanvir Hussain, Prime Minister Spokesman Mussadaq Malik, defense analyst Gen (r) Ghulam Mustafa, former IGP Punjab Khawaja Khalid Farooq, The Nation Editor Saleem Bokhari, journalist Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami, UCP Dean Mughees-ud-Din Sheikh, former foreign minister Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali, religious scholar Raghib Naeemi, and social worker and lawyer Muhammad Jabbran. PJF president Zulfiqar Ahmad Rahat hosted the seminar.
Speaking on the occasion, PM’s spokesman Mussadiq Malik and Defence Production Minister Rana Taqnvir Hussain said: “There should be no such impression from any quarter that there are differences among military and political leadership.”
Musaddaq Malik said that we should be optimistic about our future and not talk about the disappointment. He said that Operation Zarb-e-Azab was in process successfully and terrorism will be rooted out completely soon.
Comparing with the past, he said that in 2013 2000 incidents of terrorism took place while in the year 2016 this number is only 300. 411 terrorists were hanged during one year while 2.2 million people were arrested and were being investigated on terrorism charges.
“The government agencies arrested 156,000 people on terrorism charges, and 1,811 terrorists were killed while 3500 were arrested on charges of delivering hatred speeches.
“During one year 1.4 million Afghanis and 105 millions SIMs were registered and 40000 passports of such peoples were cancelled who were involved in killing of the innocent people,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, The Nation Editor Salim Bokhari said that NAP was good thing but why military courts were announced after attack on Army Public School (APS). Prior to that incident, Bokhari said, no less than 50,000 people were killed in the country.
He said that it was third government of Nawaz Sharif about to be toppled due to the only reason that the prime minister does not enjoy good relations with real establishment of the country.
He further said that due to half baked things in the country we could not overcome the big issues. Had we completed Operation in Karachi in 1992, current operation would not have been needed, he added.
“There is consensus among the Muslims among the basic things of Islam then why there is sectarianism in the country,” he questioned.
He was of the view that the root cause of sectarianism in the country was proxy war being imposed by America, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Talking on the occasion Gen (r) Ghulam Mustafa said that only weak leaderships shift responsibility of the problems on others. “Reason behind the failure of NAP is that our leaders do not accept their responsibility.”
Former foreign minister Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali said, “We are becoming part of terrorism only to please America and Saudi Arabia and our next generation will have to pay for this.” Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami said that we should not allow anyone to use our land against any third party.
