ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday called for collective efforts above party line and effective legislation to cleanse the society of terrorism.
“We should avoid politicking on national security. It is a shared responsibility and we should also share each other’s successes and failures,” he said winding up discussion on a motion in the Senate on national security.
“Our successes by the time are only due to our collective efforts and shared responsibility and if we shall start playing politics on this issue, we may fail to achieve our goals. Both the Houses of the Parliament and provincial governments should have to carry forward the agenda of eliminating terrorism,” he said.
The minister quoted the example of Karachi situation and said successes in the Sindh capital were an outcome of the collective responsibility of the federal and provincial governments.
Recalling the past, he said in June 2013 daily four to five terrorist attacks used to be reported but now even weeks and months “we seldom hear of any terrorist attack. But, this again does not mean that the issue has been resolved. Thousands of terrorists and members of proscribed organization were arrested or eliminated and more are on the watch list.”
Chaudhry Nisar said even the international community was recognizing Pakistan’s successes in the war against terrorism. “After successful completion of the operation Zarb-e-Azb, today no terrorist organization has its head office in Pakistan.”
About sectarian religious parties, he said, any cleric involved in extremist activities had thousands of followers. Anybody involved in such activities was either arrested or in case of resistance was eliminated, he added.
The minister said the interior ministry faced problems in the implementation of existing laws as he quoted the mechanism of proscribing an extremist outfit.
The interior ministry, he said, “can send them a notice within three days when any activity surfaces and the parties have the provision under the law to reply to our notice.”
When the ministry rejected their reply, they had the provision to go to courts, he said, referring to an organization which has been contesting its case in the high court.
“We need to have more effective laws to deal with such organizations and we are looking towards the Parliament for this purpose.”
He rejected news of meeting with leaders of proscribed organizations and mentioned meetings of leaders of such an organization with the ministers of the previous governments.
“I have photo evidence of such meetings. Therefore, those blaming me must also know about the meetings during their government’s tenure.”
He called for a prudent approach instead of criticizing one another because division in “our ranks will pave way for success of our enemies. On my part I never criticized any party except giving clarification in response to a statement about me in connection with the terrorist attack at the shrine in Sehwan Sharif.”
Nisar said it would have been better if he would have been called to the House for clarification instead of criticizing his statement. “Statements in the House must be replied with statements within the House not outside.”
The minister said he never showed any flexibility for terrorists or extremists and his statement distinguishing banned terrorist outfits from proscribed sectarian organizations in the country was on the basis of vast experience.
He said the present government had collected data of proscribed organizations in the country as it could not be done by the previous governments.
He said the government had announced National Action Plan that was under implementation and its results could be seen from the present law and order situation in the country.
