ISLAMABAD: Announcing only a gist of a new national security policy in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the government had decided, in “a basic policy shift”, to target the source of terrorism in response to acts of militant violence anywhere in the country.

But the minister, in a 45-minute speech, refrained from a definitive pronouncement on the fate of a peace dialogue between the government and Taliban militants that he said was “put on hold” last week after a series of deadly militant acts, prompting an opposition charge that he had created “more confusion” rather than removing one.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who made a rare appearance in the house for the occasion, did not agree with the charge from Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah but, in a conciliatory gesture, promised to try to remove if the interior minister’s speech had at all created any confusion.

The prime minister also agreed with Mr Shah’s suggestion to hold in-camera talks with leaders of all parliamentary parties to take them into confidence on the fate of the dialogue process which the government initiated early this month under a mandate given by a Sept 9 ‘all-party conference’.

He said that although the government negotiating committee’s coordinator and his adviser on national affairs, Irfan Siddiqui, had been regularly briefing the media about meetings with the Taliban committee, he felt there should be “more interaction” besides the one with the media.

And he assured the house that “we will make arrangements and will invite leaders of opposition parties for a heart-to-heart discussions” and seek their advice for any improvement in what he said would be a state policy rather than one government’s, for which he praised the “hard work” put in by Chaudhry Nisar.

Mr Sharif commended what he called a “much better” political atmosphere visible now in the country compared to that of 25-30 years ago, saying that “we have struggled” for creating this situation, “learnt lessons” and “improved ourselves” to reach a stage when “we talk with responsibility”.

The interior minister only briefly touched upon some salient features of what he said would be the country’s first national security policy, divided into three parts – one being “strictly confidential” about day-to-day government actions and the other two relating to strategic and operational matters.

With the aim of greater coordination among the country’s intelligence and security agencies, it envisages a joint intelligence directorate, an internal security division, a helicopter-equipped rapid response force in the federal capital and the four provinces, and what he called the revival of the existing National Counter-terrorism Authority (Nacta) as the premier decision-making organ, with an unspecified part of it being secret.

Policy copies unavailable

But he said the 100-page document, whose copies were not immediately available either to lawmakers or the media, was “not be-all and end-all” and could be improved with suggestions from lawmakers in a house debate, which Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said could begin on Monday.

Though house members complained that they didn’t have the document with them, they seemed more interested to hear about – and what the minister would not tell – whether the dialogue between a four-member government team and a three-member committee nominated by Taliban, which began on Feb 7 and was suspended last week, would resume or had been given up while air force jets and army helicopter gunships had been targeting militant hideouts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas for several days.

Chaudhry Nisar said that contrary to the previous practice of security forces responding to an act of terrorism locally “at the same place”, the government had decided to respond to any such act “in any corner of the country” by targeting the militants’ “headquarters” as was happening now.

“There was a clear government decision that there should be zero collateral damage,” he said, adding that this was being done “strictly in accordance with the government’s directives” and on “intelligence-generated” information. “There is a basic policy shift that if there is an act of violence, it will get a response.”

However, the minister stressed the necessity of a political consensus to counter terrorism whether it was dialogue or a military operation in what he said would be a God-ordained duty to save the country from ‘fasad’.

But opposition leader Khursheed Shah was not much impressed by the minister’s oration, which he said had created “more confusion” on whether the government still wanted a dialogue with the Taliban or would opt for a military operation. He also complained that the government “did not take the trouble of taking the opposition into confidence about (progress of) the dialogue” or whether it had been given up or faced some hurdles.

And while proposing in-camera discussions with leaders of opposition parties, he assured the prime minister that “we are prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with you to fight the war for Pakistan’s safety. We will not make any demand that may harm democracy.”

Before being adjourned until 10.30am on Thursday, the house passed, without a debate, a brief government bill seeking to repeal the British-era Federal Court Act, 1937, which an accompanying statement of objects and reasons said, had become redundant after the framing of Supreme Court Rules, 1980.