Despite the boasts that the government is making for quite some time regarding the efficiency of National Action Plan (NAP), it seems that the government is still struggling with implementing NAP and securing the desired goals. Therefore, the government erects one after another institution for the purpose. The consensus reached upon by the attendees of the first ever-National Internal Security Committee (NISC) to constitute Expert Working Groups for ensuring coordination on, and implementation of the NAP to counter terrorism shows that the state is yet to achieve what it wanted to accomplish through previous such set-ups.
It is worth mentioning that right after the US intervention in Afghanistan, the spillover effects of war-affected Pakistan on an unimaginable scale. It was only after the fateful incident attack of terrorists on Army Public School Peshawar (APSP) in 2014 that the nation’s will reflected itself in the form of NAP against terrorism of all sorts. However, even almost four years since then, the government is yet doing experiments. The recent revelation of the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan regarding Expert Working Groups tells us so.
How come that even after suffering from the menace of terrorism for so long and the subsequent framing of NAP, the inter-organisation coordination is ineffective. The need for new Expert Working Groups stressed upon in the first-ever meeting of NISC tells us that even to this day because of poor communication and coordination among variously responsible institutions prove to be one of the biggest hurdles in implementation of the NAP to counter terrorism among many other factors.
Will the new set-ups any different from the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), which had been given the role of monitoring implementation of NAP? NACTA remains a case study of the lack of seriousness and commitment on the part if the state against terrorism as it did not have enough funds to carry out its duties effectively. Hence, NAP could not be implemented in “letter and spirit” as the PM of Pakistan wishes. While NACTA was given powers and authorities to implement NAP, it was not financially empowered, as the body did not receive sufficient finances to run its operations.
This editorial does not discourage the government from creating Expert Working Groups for effective implementation of NAP. However, it does ask the government to take a few moments to contemplate on the reasons that reduced the NAP to a document like any other document that the state release now and then. Conducting such an exercise will help the state in removing all the loopholes and leakages that are proving obstacles in the way of NAP to counter terrorism.
