ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday cautioned against using the country’s war on terror for political point scoring, while stressing that implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) was the collective responsibility of all stakeholders, including all provincial governments.

While addressing print and electronic media associations at a consultative meeting the minister regretted that the Ministry of Interior had come under attack in various discussions on NAP.

He said of the total 20 points of NAP, his ministry was responsible for only four while 10 points fell in the domain of provincial governments. Therefore, there was no justification for attacks against the ministry, he stressed.

The onus of ensuring security at the shrine in Sehwan Sharif was on the provincial government, he said. Before the attack, when the provincial chief secretary was asked about security measures taken at the shrine, he had no answer. Yet it was the interior ministry that had borne the brunt of criticism in the aftermath of the attack there, he added.

Over the last three-and-a-half years, there had been a significant decrease in the number of terrorist attacks, he said. The number of explosions dropped from 2,000 a year to 700, and no loss of life was reported in 260 of those attacks, he said.

The porous border with Afghanistan had posed an enormous security challenge for the country, he said. Foreign powers were involved in funding and financing terrorist activities and providing terrorists strategic help in planning the attacks on Pakistani soil, he claimed.

The interior ministry had issued several timely threat alerts with specific information but they had been disregarded by provincial governments, he said. “I have avoided doing politics on that.”

He urged the media to play its role in instilling courage and determination in people in this war against menace of terrorism. He said this was a war-like situation and recalled that messages had been disseminated in wars of 1965 and 1971 to keep morale of people high. “It is the need of the hour to keep spirit of people alive in war against terrorist elements”, he remarked.

He urged the media to play a positive role in countering terrorism and to unite the nation. He said the meeting with journalists had been convened to discuss the one-point agenda of countering terrorism.

At an earlier meeting with journalists on January 18, 2015, the minister recalled he had urged media houses to not give terrorists space or coverage.

“I have always appreciated the role of the media...over the last two years, there are no more commentaries [in the media] on representatives of terrorist organisations,” he said.

The minister said isolated incidents of terrorism could not demoralise the nation, and added that the recent spate of insecurity was a blowback of the frustration of terrorists whose back had been broken.

The decision to launch Operation Raddul Fasad was taken at the Prime Minister’s House, Chaudhry Nisar said. He also urged the participants to come up with ways on how to corner terrorists.

Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurengzeb and Principal Information Officer Rao Tehsin Alsi were present at the meeting held with a delegation of the Pakistan Broadcasting Association (PBA), the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and the Council of Newspapers’ Editors (CPNE).

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017