Censuring the government over the apparent non-implementation of the hyped National Action Plan (NAP), the apex court called it a mere ‘eyewash’, a ‘big joke’ that ‘existed only on papers’. Expressing his displeasure over the absence of even a ‘single bit of concrete action’, Justice Jawad Khawaja said it was ‘devised to deceive the masses’. In a rare rebuttal to the Supreme Court, an unnamed spokesperson of the Interior Ministry rejected the Court’s remarks.Since its inception, NAP has not achieved any of its goals. The federal government told the apex court that the provinces and the capital had been instructed to strictly monitor both local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country and has sought audit reports from 1,427 NGOs. However, like all the recent anti-terrorism initiatives, this added scrutiny may lead us down a slippery slope. After the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted for terrorism-related cases in the aftermath of the Peshawar school attack last December, capital punishment was expanded to apply to all convicts on death row. This move invited severe criticism from the UN, European Union and humanitarian organisations all over the world because many of the convicts had not been given due process, were suspected of being juvenile offenders or had confessed to their alleged crimes after being tortured in police custody. Analogously, it seems that with the rapid growth of madrassas (religious seminaries) in Pakistan and the reports that an alarming number of these may be recruiting militants for terrorist organisations and preaching their extremist propaganda, the state is now pursuing all organisations that are not affiliated with the state.The failings of the public education system has allowed madrassas to fill the gap. Terrorism in Pakistan is a Hydra, which cannot be eradicated by military operations alone; we have to attack the very root of this evil and prevent the at-risk youth of the country from becoming the victims of fundamentalist brainwashing. The failings of NAP show that it must be reworked to be effective. However, if this endeavour were to eliminate the organisations that are actually doing some good in the country and allow the religious seminaries to breed fundamentalists and terrorists, NAP would be completely counterproductive.
pk.shafaqna.com
NAP implementation : A big joke with nation
