ISLAMABAD: The Senate unanimously adopted on Monday a resolution asking the government to take “further effective steps” for implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism.

The resolution was adopted by the house on the opening day of its new session with the addition of the word “further” after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan briefed the members about the progress so far made in tackling terrorism.

Know more: Govt accused of going slow on National Action Plan

Winding up the debate on the resolution tabled by Sitara Ayaz of the Awami National Party, the minister claimed improvement in the security situation throughout the country, particularly in Karachi, since the present government assumed office in June 2013.

He admitted that “complete peace” had not returned to the country, its enemies had not been eliminated and a war was still on.

“Complete success is still far away. Enemies have not been completely eliminated. A number of them have been killed, but still some of them are alive,” he said in his 68-minute speech in which he also provided some statistics regarding implementation of the NAP.

The minister said the security forces had carried out over 3,000 “intelligence-based operations” during the past four months in which 37,666 people, including 725 hardened criminals, had been arrested.

“And there is no missing person in it,” he said, adding that all the arrested people had been presented before courts.

He said 1,132 people had been arrested in Punjab and 325 of them had been placed in ‘Schedule 4’ of anti-terrorism law.

Chaudhry Nisar said there were 64 banned organisations under the law of the land, while 74 had been declared unlawful by the United Nations. The activities of these organisations are constantly being monitored and their activists are under surveillance.

He admitted difficulties in tracing terrorist funding, saying it was a complicated issue and a few more months would go by before any progress is made.

He said 4,666 people had been arrested for spreading anarchy and delivering hate speeches through misuse of loudspeakers.

The minister informed the house that 90 million mobile phone SIMs had been verified in a record three months.

He declared that the operation against criminals in Karachi would be taken to its logical end. He claimed there had been improvement in the law and order situation in the city, claiming an 84 per cent decline in targeted killings, 38pc in murders, 37pc in extortion cases and 23pc in robberies.

In response to criticism regarding lack of action against seminaries, he said the government could not take indiscriminate action against them without concrete evidence.

Chaudhry Nisar gave the credit of success of the NAP to political unity, civil-military understanding and improvement in coordination among the intelligence agencies.

He said despite the fact that different parties were running the governments in the four provinces, the political leadership was united on the issue of the country’s defence.

APEX COMMITTEES: Commenting on criticism by some opposition members over the presence of army commanders and intelligence officials in meetings of the provincial apex committees overseeing implementation of the plan, he said the presence of generals in such meetings was necessary because there was a state of war. He said these meetings were presided over by civilians.

The minister said the plan was owned by parliament, all the political parties, provincial governments and the military since it had been drafted and was being implemented with complete unity among the leaders.

He assured the house that the cyber crime bill would be passed only after development of consensus.

Earlier, the Senate held a debate on the issue of corruption in federal government departments on a motion moved by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Tahir Mashhadi.

PPP’s Farhatullah Babar said corruption would continue to flourish as long as big fish were not caught and institutional corruption was not addressed.

He deplored that three senior officers allegedly involved in the 2010 National Logistics Cell corruption scandal had not been prosecuted even though they had retired and were no longer in military service.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2015

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