KARACHI: The Nat­ional Action Plan needs to be reinvigorated to neutralise the threats of terrorism the country is facing after the Sehwan bomb blast, and NAP must work in coordination with the recently initiated operation Raddul Fasaad.

This was stated by representatives of the Pakistan Women’s Foundation for Peace at the Karachi Press Club on Monday.

Speaking for most part of the press conference, chairperson of the foundation Nargis Rehman said the current scenario was the result of a “string of issues that were present before the attack [on the shrine] occurred”. Explaining, she said the issues related to lack of governance, extrajudicial killings, a politicised police force and a foreign policy remaining out of the reach of the civilian government.

Ms Rehman said: “Defeating terrorism is possible. It is possible through collective efforts of the rights organisations, the state and its institutions. The criminal justice system needs to be strengthened, including an independent judiciary and honest prosecutors.”

At the same time, she said, clerics belonging to various schools of thought must help “unite people under one roof rather than segregate them in the name of sects”. Also, space provided to “militants in return for political favours and disaster relief must be checked and stopped. Hate literature against any sect or religion” must be destroyed publicly, she said.

Speaking about NAP, Ms Rehman said it was “not a thought-out document, lacked a time frame and set goals”. Military courts, she added, convicted 40 persons in the first year of their existence. But at the same time, banned militant outfits and their leaders were given open space to preach their ideology. The militants continued to have “strong support bases in southern Punjab and Sindh despite the ongoing military operation Zarb-i-Azb and NAP”, she added.

“We are aware that Pakistan is surrounded by hostile neighbours. But there should be a focus to get our act together before it’s too late. Proper implementation of NAP in accordance with the current operation Raddul Fasaad is one way of ensuring that,” she said.

Mehnaz Rahman, Zub­eida Mustafa and others were also present at the event.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017