NAP, a successful plan…….Is it?

Eurasia News

By Ali Zain Raza

National Action Plan, a phrase that has been quite famous with the politicians since the depressive occurrence of APS Peshawar and is something which they feel pride in mentioning as their success, has it really been a success in light of the recent blasts? I choose to disagree.

More than 100 people have lost their lives in the last 5 days and the “good governance” of every province stands exposed.

According to NACTA, “About 951 of the terrorists were killed in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), 455 in Sindh, 197 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 135 in Punjab, 68 in Balochistan and two in Gilgit Baltistan (GB)” whereas thousands are held in detention. Backbone is an organ, which the doctors consider a human support system. It comes as a surprise when Federal Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer said that the brave armed forces of Pakistan have won the war against terrorism as operation of Zarb-e-Azb had broken the backbone of terrorists whereas, in the last 5 days, they have managed to raise the death toll to 100+ despite the high alert in the whole country and they did this all with a broken backbone, in absence of “support system.” Surprising, isn’t it?

I feel no reluctance in stating that General (retd) Raheel Sharif indeed worked to restore the image of Pakistan Armed Forces, the trust of masses in their forces and managing to promote the message that armed forces and political system operate separately. However, since the retirement of General (retd) Raheel Sharif, Pakistan has been under constant and NAP, seem helpless to the extent that people in Pakistan have nothing to say except their expression of deep sadness on the recent events.

Even in the light of recent events, it seems like that once again; it is the army, which the masses are looking up to, rather than the government when it comes to making peace within the country. Our foreign office, which is still without an appointed foreign minister, merely recorded a protest to the Afghan officials whereas it is the army handing over the list of “76 most wanted terrorists” to Afghan Officials and have been asked to take immediate action against them or hand them over to Pakistan.

Therefore, I believe that despite the statistics which the government claims for NAP, it may have assisted with countering terrorism in Pakistan to some extent however, there still is a lot to do to actually “break the backbone” of terrorists. My condolences are with the families of the martyrs of the recent blasts with a hope of witnessing a day where we feel safe and secured while moving in our own country.

 

The author is currently studying Law at University of London International Programme.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of Dispatch News Desk.