NAP is a complete plan which lacks action from the stakeholders
On December 24, 2014, all political parties and both the governments of Pakistan came together to accept Terrorism as the mother of all evils in the society and agreed to a document called National Action Plan (NAP) to weed out the terrorism from all facets of our lives to create a “Just” society. Mr. Moeed Yusuf’s article in Dawn that NAP wasn’t a well thought-out document but rather a hotchpotch list of 20 points is quite misleading.
The Terrorism in our society need to be beaten down to the ground as a first priority of the nation; we don’t need a sophisticated management plan with all its fancy ingredients, i.e., Vision, Mission, Goal, Objectives and then Work plan. The NAP has clearly defined in 20 points its Vision, Mission, goal, objective and now it is up to all stakeholders besides Army to prepare a detail work plan of their respective responsibilities (same as Army) and start implementing them.
Pakistan is in a state of desperate need to defeat the Terrorism and eliminate corruption which got seeded deep into the roots of all our systems and the behavior of our society. Except Army, most of our institutions have failed to provide justice to the people; our judiciary system, unfortunately, allows Bail under the law in most cases which permit time to continue practicing corruption till the courts give their verdict. These verdicts in such cases often become redundant because the cause or the time of punishment got lapsed for example in the verdict on Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s petition.
Pakistan army is being deterred by the corrupt politicians and government officials who are constantly blocking army action by limiting their power by unnecessarily using the constitutional provisions and some time by attacking them morally and physiologically. Is there any reason that Rangers are not given a free hand to deal with the terrorism in Punjab and the interior Sindh. There is none. General Raheel Sharif has clearly pointed out in his speech on September 6, 2016, that the government has failed to implement the NAP.
How corrupt politicians or government officials can implement the NAP; the implementation of which will allow the legal authorities to arrest the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Ministers, political leaders and the bureaucrats if they are found guilty. Look at the Panama Leaks in which the Prime Minister and his associates can clearly lose their offices and can go to jail or be disqualified for life from taking any public offices if they are found guilty. Bur the Parliament and our national institutions such as NAB, FIA, EC and others have totally failed so far to confer the justice in Panama leaks. Only a few politicians such as Imran Khan, Dr. Tahirul Qadri, Shaikh Rasheed Ahmad and Siraj ul Haq are gone on the street to seek justice and punish those who are guilty of money laundering. All other politicians, in fear of their own corruption cases, are giving Cock and Bull stories not to join the protest on November 2 with Imran Khan.
The NAP is a plan and complete recipe to uproot evils from the society, but unfortunately, those responsible for implementing this plan except the Army are part of the evils which can hurt them if this plan is implemented.
The writer is Political Scholar and Analyst based in Montreal, Canada.
