ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior will meet here on Thursday for a briefing on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism.

According to the agenda, the focus of the committee headed by former interior minister Rehman Malik will be on “achievements made so far” and the “reasons of failure” in implementation of the plan.

It will be the first meeting of the committee after the election of Mr Malik as its chairman and is being held almost three weeks after unanimous adoption of a resolution by the Senate, asking the government to take “further effective steps” for implementation of NAP.

The resolution was adopted on May 4 with the addition of the word “further” after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan briefed the house about the progress made in tackling terrorism.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, Senator Malik said the committee was taking up the matter on its own, using special powers.

“We have suo motu powers of taking up any matter of public importance,” he said.

The former minister said NAP’s implementation was a very serious issue and the committee’s members would like to get complete information regarding the progress made in this regard.

He said the committee was also considering taking up issues like human smuggling and a fake degree scam. He, however, said the decision about taking up the issue of allegations against an information technology firm would be taken after consultation with the members because they did not want to create panic.

During the extensive debate on the Senate resolution moved by Sitara Ayaz of the Awami National Party (ANP), the opposition members had severely criticised the government for its alleged failure to implement NAP in letter and spirit.

They have been accusing the government of going slow in the plan’s implementation.

Some opposition members had also called for formation of an oversight parliamentary committee for monitoring NAP’s progress.

They were of the view that although the government had taken some actions like blocking the unverified phone SIMs, the core issues promised in the action plan were being ignored.

The opposition members had also expressed the fear that after announcement of NAP, the role of military had increased in matters related to security issues and decision-making had shifted from the civilian, political leadership.

The ANP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement senators had accused the government of not playing a pro-active role top eradicate terrorism from south Punjab.

The members had expressed concerned over alleged failure of the government to take action against banned organisations and seminaries after the announcement of NAP following a terrorist attack on the Peshawar Army Public School in December.

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

He claimed improvement in the security situation throughout the country, particularly in Karachi, under the present government.

The minister had also admitted difficulties in tracing terrorist funding, saying it was a complicated issue and some months of work was required for progress in this regard.

He had said the government could not take indiscriminate action against seminaries without concrete evidence.

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

The Senate committee will also take up in the meeting the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Bill.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2015

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