PESHAWAR: While condemning the Quetta hospital suicide attack, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday called for the regular review of the National Action Plan against terrorism to examine its progress and identify hurdles to it for corrective measures.

The house unanimously adopted a resolution tabled by law minister Imtiaz Shahid against the Quetta carnage.

The resolution was jointly signed by the treasury and opposition members.

The chair, Dr Mahar Taj Roghani, suspended the agenda for the day before allowing the house to debate the Quetta terrorist attack.

“The NAP exists on paper only,” insisted ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak.

He regretted the NAP had been enforced but suicide attacks, bomb blasts, targeted killings, kidnappings for ransom and extortions continued to occur in the country.

Condemns Quetta suicide attack, regrets growing terror incidents

The ANP leader said after all political parties finalised the NAP against terrorism and it was enforced, an impression was given to the people that terrorists would be eliminated, but that didn’t happen.

He demanded the federal and all provincial governments stand united against terrorism at all forums.

“Until now, no one knows about those involved in the 2014 Army Public School Peshawar attack in which 144 students and school staff members were brutally killed,” he said.

Mr. Babak said one and a half years had passed after the APS attack but parents of the slain schoolchildren continued to push the government for sharing the attack probe report with them.

Senior minister Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao told the house that the people had pinned high hopes on the NAP after political parties unanimously finalised it.

He said there was a need for the continuous review of the NAP as terrorists kept changing their strategy.

“The NAP’s implementation should be continuously monitored,” he said.

Mr. Sikandar, who belongs to the Qaumi Watan Party, said the NAP review would help the government know about the 20-point NAP’s parts fully implemented and the hurdles to its enforcement.

On the occasion, senior minister Inayatullah Khan demanded that the federal government implement the NAP in letter and spirit to eradicate terrorism from the country.

He said the whole country had been affected by militancy and violence.

Fakhar Azam Wazir of the PPP said some improvement on the anti-terrorism front was seen after the NAP’s implementation began, but he believed a lot more was needed to be done to free the country from the scourge of violence.

He urged the people to stand against militancy instead of leaving the fight against militants to the army alone.

Leader of the opposition Lutfur Rehman said those, who had claimed militancy had been eliminated from the country, had turned out to be absolutely wrong.

“There is a dire need to think why the incidence of militancy is not reducing,” he said.

Also, the treasury and opposition lawmakers expressed concern about the maltreatment of Afghan nationals in the country and said the refugees, who had spent four decades in Pakistan, should be repatriated in a respectful and dignified manner otherwise their ‘humiliating repatriation’ would have serious repercussions for the country.

The chair later adjourned the session until Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2016