ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the Senate accused the government on Monday of going slow on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and called for formation of an oversight parliamentary committee for its monitoring.

Taking part in the debate on a resolution moved by Sitara Ayaz of the ANP calling upon the government to “take effective steps for implementation of the National Action Plan to counter terrorism in the country”, Mushahid Hussain of the PML-Q asked the government to tell the house about the ownership of NAP.

“Tell us as to who has the ownership of NAP. Is it with the ministry of interior or the prime minister’s secretariat?”

Read: MPC ends with national consensus on NAP

Mr Hussain regretted that the implementation of NAP had not only slowed down, but it also lacked transparency. He called for formation of an oversight committee of parliament as per a decision of the meeting in which the NAP had been finalised.

Farhatullah Babar of the PPP said the government and the parliament should have laid down procedures for military courts to ensure some minimal measure of transparency and accountability in the trial of accused.

Without elaborating, the PPP senator said although the government had taken some actions like blocking the unverified phone SIMs, the core issues promised in the action plan were being ignored.

Increasing military role in decision-making criticised in Senate

In an apparent reference to the announcements made by the Inter-Services Public Relations about military actions against terrorists through twitter, Mr Babar showed concern over what he said “executions by tweets without even a word about who the criminals were, when and where they were tried, the charges against them, the prosecution’s case and the defence pleas”.

“This new state policy of execution by tweets, if not checked, will have a severe backlash,” he warned.

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Another disturbing feature, according to Mr Babar, was shifting of decision-making from civilian, political leadership to the military. “This is evident from holding of apex committees’ meetings at air bases and offices of the country’s security establishment.”

He said because of the absence of rules of engagement of the apex committees it appeared that these were treading in the domains of the provinces in the name of security. He called for adoption of rules for apex committees and the conduct of trials by military courts.

The ANP’s Ilyas Bilour accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif of not playing a pro-active role as they had been playing some time ago.

He said had the NAP been implemented in letter and spirit there would have been no incidents of terror in Lahore and Peshawar. He said it seemed that no action was being taken against militancy in south Punjab.

Abdul Qayyum of the PML-N said that they had no option but to implement NAP because the Taliban had been waging a war against the state.

Sassi Palejo of the PPP called for improving coordination on NAP.

Jahanzeb Jamaldini of the BNP-M said if they continued to take “wrong actions” like in the past, they would have to prepare more action plans.

Tahir Mashhadi of the MQM, Nauman Wazir of the PTI and Hafiz Hamdullah of the JUI-F also expressed concern over slow progress on NAP.

The JUI-F’s Maulana Ataur Rehman called for reviewing the 21st Amendment under which military courts were set up.

Chairman Raza Rabbani, however, did not put up the resolution for a vote due to the absence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, saying that he did not want to give a one-sided decision. He said the interior minister should come to the house to brief members on the issue.

Later, taking part in a debate on the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on a motion moved by PPP’s Saeed Ghani, the opposition members criticised the government for not sharing information with the house.

Mr Ghani accused the government of exerting pressure on two gas companies to sign the agreement without finalising the price.

Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan termed the import of LNG without finalising its price a violation of rules.

Winding up the debate, the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, said that negotiations were under way to finalise the price.

He said at present LNG was being imported by the private sector through the Pakistan State Oil.

The chairman referred the motion to the committee concerned for further discussion.

The house did not take up the resolution moved by JI Emir Sirajul Haq, asking the government to condemn execution of political leaders in Bangladesh because of the absence of the mover.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2015

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