DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Updated 17 Dec, 2016 08:44am

PPP calls for Nisar's resignation, motions submitted in Senate and National Assembly

The PPP has submitted adjournment motions in the Senate and the National Assembly on Friday demanding the immediate resignation of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar.

The motions were filed following the release of the inquiry commission report on the Quetta Civil Hospital carnage. They were submitted in the National Assembly Secretariat and the Senate Secretariat.

"The people of Pakistan have been subjected to sustained terrorist attacks, which continue unabated, and deserve answers. Those who have failed the people of Pakistan need to be held accountable. Things can not go as they have been. Without top-tier accountability, it is unlikely systematic change will be possible," read the motion filed in the National Assembly.

The adjournment motion submitted in the National Assembly.

"This reaffirms our view that Minister of Interior is incapable or unable to play his role in combating terrorism and therefore, demand that he resign immediately," added the adjournment motion.

The motion further added that an urgent debate is needed on the state of national security in light of the report by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The motion submitted in the National Assembly was signed by PPP's Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Abdul Sattar Bachani and others.

In the motion submitted in the Senate, the PPP demanded discussion on the same subject by adjourning normal business of the house.

The motion in the Senate stated that the inquiry report presents a "damning indictment of the government's commitment and execution of NAP".

PPP's Senator Sherry Rehman among other signed the motion submitted in the Senate.

The inquiry commission on the Aug 8 Quetta carnage called for banning terrorist organisations without any delay by enforcing the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) in letter and spirit.

Key recommendations

• The National Action Plan should be made into a proper plan, with clear goals, a comprehensive monitoring mechanism, and periodic reviewing.

• Nacta (National Counter Terrorism Authority) must be activated. It must do what the Nacta Act mandates.

• The public space needs to be reclaimed to counteract the virulent propaganda of the terrorists. The laws and Constitution need to be reestablished and the state must re-exert itself.

• The Anti-Terrorism Act needs to be enforced, and terrorists/terrorist organisations must be proscribed without delay.

• The federal and Balochistan governments must develop and maintain a databank with information or perpetrators/suspects of heinous crimes and terrorists organisations.

• Forensic laboratories should be not under the jurisdiction of the police, but of scientists. The results/tests should be uploaded in a central databank and easily accessed from any province.

• All crime scenes should be professionally secured, forensically examined and extensively photographed as soon as possible.

• Protocols or standard operating procedures should be developed with the help of experts.

• The shortcomings of the hospital, government of Balochistan and police need to be addressed and removed.

• All educational institutions, including madaris, need to be registered.

• Entry into and departure from Pakistan needs to be properly monitored; all persons must have the requisite documentation.

• The customs authorities should ensure that contraband is not brought into the country.

• If the media broadcasts and propagates the views of terrorists, then those doing so must be prosecuted in accordance with the law.

• The amount of compensation for the legal heirs of the decea­sed and for the injured should be expeditiously distributed.

Read Comments

May 9 riots: Military courts hand 25 civilians 2-10 years’ prison time Next Story