ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday urged the top brass of the civil service to commit to improving service delivery and convalescing work environment of public sector organizations. 

The minister was addressing the participants of the 106th National Management Course — a mandatory training course for civil servants before assuming senior most slots — that is underway at the National School of Public Policy.

Nisar said that at a time when the civil service was facing serious challenges of human resource, capacity issues and most importantly trust and respect from the general public, the senior bureaucrats must rise to the occasion and raise their performance level to revive the wavering confidence of the public in their abilities.

Talking about the overall situation of the country especially the security situation, the minister said that the law and order situation has improved significantly in recent years as a result of concerted efforts by all stakeholders including the civilian governments, the armed forces, police, civil armed forces and intelligence agencies.

“We have never let political divisions come in way of security cooperation and have always extended maximum cooperation to the provincial governments regardless of their political affiliations. Contrary to what is projected or claimed, the improvement in security situation is the result of shared efforts and credit for the improved security situation goes to all stakeholders,” he said.

He said that the country’s fight against terrorism has indeed been a success story. Pakistan has witnessed a sharp decline in terror-related incidents. “From the peak of over 2000 incidents in 2010, the last year’s figure stands at 785 out of which 285 incidents did not involve any loss of life,” he said.

The minister said that after the National Action Plan was formulated, practical steps were taken and an effective mechanism was put in place for mutual intelligence sharing not only among various intelligence agencies but also between federal and provincial governments.  The gathering later turned into an interactive session where the participants shared their observations and asked various questions about the security related issues.

On a question about the role of Rangers in Karachi operation and the issues of extension of their stay at regular intervals, the minister reiterated that the services of Rangers were provided to Sindh to assist the provincial government in maintaining peace in the metropolis. He said that though the law and order was a provincial subject the federal government has always extended every possible improving work environment of the public sector organisations to provincial governments in maintaining peace and stability. “As far as the stay of Rangers is concerned the federal government would strictly follow the legal course as given under the law.”  On border management and regulating the cross-border movement, the minister said that fencing of the western border with an effective surveillance mechanism would significantly help in checking illegal movement of unwanted elements.

He said that the government took the decision of fencing of the western border in view of frequented cross-border movement.  He said that when he took over as the interior minister, incoming and outgoing movement of individuals was recorded at 30,000 to 50,000 on a daily basis via Torkham border alone and that too without any documentation.

He said that the present government regulated this frequented movement by making the travel document mandatory for the crossing purposes.  He said that by 2020, four more crossing points would be added to the western border in addition to the two existing crossing points. He said that within next two to three years, an effective border surveillance system would be in place on the western border with watch towers, cameras and movement detection sensors.