ISLAMABAD: On this day, three years ago, young students, teachers and staff of the Army Public School Peshawar bore the brunt of the tyrants and religious fanatics, who shed their blood. This brought the entire nation together to resolve to fight the extremists, said former president Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday. In a message on the third anniversary of the attack on APS, Zardari said: “All those who were martyred in the gruesome attack on APS that day are national heroes and heroines and while we salute them we also pledge that their sacrifices will not go in vain.” The former president also deplored that the National Action Plan (NAP) devised to root out terrorism to avenge the blood of the martyrs had not been implemented in letter and spirit. “Failure in implementing the NAP amounts to rejecting the sacrifices of countless shuhada of the armed forces, the para-military forces, the police and the civilians in the fight against militancy and extremism,” he said. “On this day, we also call for bringing all perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice and accountability of those who have failed in implementation of the NAP,” he said. The former president lamented that banned militant organisations had resurrected under different names behind the façade of charity work. “FATA reforms promised in the NAP was thrown to the wind as the proposed bill was mysteriously withdrawn from the agenda of the National Assembly without any reason a few days ago,” he said. Zardari demanded the government immediately bring the FATA Reforms Bill in Parliament to pave the way for merger of tribal areas with the Pakhtunkhwa province.
Published in Daily Times, December 17th 2017.