VIOLENT protests by the TLP, which brought the country to a standstill for nearly three days, have brought back into focus the simmering extremism and growing polarisation in society. The government’s handling of the crisis, blowing hot and cold in a matter of 72 hours, has also raised questions about its preparedness and expertise in dealing with internal security.

Since coming to power, the PTI-led government has mainly focused on the economy and foreign policy, and has largely remained silent on internal security. The position of national security adviser remains vacant while the portfolio of federal interior minister has been kept by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The only notable appointment has been that of Shehryar Afridi as minister of state for interior affairs.

While incidents of terrorism have been declining since 2014, there is consensus that extremism has emerged as the foremost internal security threat. Unlike terrorism, however, that has mainly been managed through kinetic actions, de-radicalising society needs much greater use of softer measures. This remains a generational project that requires both state and civil society actors to commit to an effective, long-term security vision.

What is the PTI’s strategy against extremism?

This is a task that no political party or government can achieve on its own. Hence, it is important to keep alive the spirit of national unity and solidarity exhibited after the APS attack in Peshawar so that collective wisdom can be utilised to guarantee security for every citizen of Pakistan.

An important initiative in this direction was the formulation of the National Internal Security Policy (2018-2023) approved by the federal government with consensus on May 29, 2018. NISP 2018 encompasses the evolution of the national thought process on dealing with internal security challenges during last two decades. It was the result of over 10 months of detailed discussions, debates and deliberations among various state institutions (civil and military and at the federal and provincial levels) as well as parliamentarians, academics, religious scholars, journalists, security experts and community groups.

While the policy initiative was led by the interior ministry, it incorporated and built on the efforts of Nacta and other key state institutions during the last four years to evolve effective counterterrorism and counter-extremism strategies. It provides policy cover to successful security initiatives, identifies gaps for improvement and offers a dispassionate analysis of sources of insecurities in society.

The policy included input from representatives of all major political parties including the PTI, PML-N and PPP, as reflected in the similarities between the policy and stated positions of these parties in their manifestos. The section on internal security in the PTI manifesto, for example, focuses on articulating a counter-narrative to extremist ideologies, winning over (reconciling with) militants willing to shun violence and enforcing the writ of state through institutional reforms and joint civil-military action. Previously, the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa focused on the criminal justice system and madressah and mosque reforms.

NISP 2018 provides a practical road map to achieving all this through its 6Rs (Reorient, Reimagine, Reconcile, Redistribute, Recognise and Regional Approach) strategy. It adds another critical dimension to discourse on internal security by linking sustainable peace to inclusive development. It advocates bringing underdeveloped and weakly governed regions at par with the affluent ones and the provision of equal opportunities and social welfare to the underprivileged. This is also a theme that is echoed in the PTI manifesto.

The policy calls for initiating critical indigenous research on the socioeconomic drivers of violence, ensuring greater political space for the youth to express themselves, creating safe public spaces for women and the pursuit of peace and stability in South Asia. It also includes a robust monitoring and evaluation mechanism and goes on to fix responsibility, suggest timelines and provide a set of indicators to measure progress on each stipulated measure.

The government would do well to use the consensus that has already been built on the internal security paradigm to move on to the implementation stage. There is already inbuilt flexibility to review, refine and prioritise areas that it deems fit in the policy’s implementation plan.

The government’s performance will not be judged by its ability to reinvent the wheel by writing another policy document but by making a difference in citizens’ lives via the timely implementation of the policy measures. Pakistani officialdom has an unremarkable record when it comes to turning ideas into reality; it is about time this changed for good.

The writer was lead author and head of the technical team responsible for formulating the National Internal Security Policy (2018-2023).

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2018