Daily Times

Eight years after its inception, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) has finally begun to showcase Pakistan’s struggle and achievements in eradicating terrorism its territory. The venture first ever ‘Islamabad International Counter Terrorism Forum (IICTF-2018) will be concluded today (Thursday, April 5, 2018) in the federal capital. Though, Pakistan has been doing a lot since the world embarked on the ‘counter terrorism’ journey with the post-9/1d1 invasion of Afghanistan. Coming to 9/11, there are many who firmly believe that the attack on the Twin Towers was a false flag operation, meant to justify military action against the Mujahideen-turned-Taliban, a group that was initially trained and armed by Washington itself.

Regardless, the consequences of 9/11 have been severe, and the world is still reeling from it. Being on the forefront of the war in Afghanistan for decades, Pakistan has been the most affected country after Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Islamabad has been unable to sufficiently convey its strategic, economic, social and infrastructural losses and concerns. Instead, the American ‘do more’ mantra has overshadowed all the efforts Pakistan has made put in at the cost of its own best interests.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the IICT Forum, the Federal Minister for Interior, Ahsan Iqbal said, “The international community have to understand that what Pakistan is facing today is largely due to the failure of the international community to discharge their obligations in the region, so therefore in order to fix the situation, we need to work together not to point fingers and blame each other, but to find opportunities for collaboration so that we can all pool our resources to bring peace to this region that has suffered for so long.”

This statement makes Pakistan’s situation clear. The international community needs to understand the challenges confronting Pakistan, and help out accordingly instead of beating a dead horse.

NACTA needs to understand that the inclusive action agenda and its implementation in letter and spirit should be consistently supported by a vigorous communication strategy. It is not just about doing something, but doing it in a manner that makes it visible to all

Ihsan Ghani, National Coordinator NACTA, rightly claims saying, “We should keep it in mind that the remarkable turnaround in the fight against terrorism has come about through concerted efforts by every single segment of the state and society. The delegates shall have an impartial assessment of Pakistan’s fight against terrorism during their stay in Pakistan for attending the three-day conference and carry the stories of the courage of this nation along with them. There is no denying the fact that countering extremism and counter-terrorism is a shared international responsibility. It is in this spirits of sharing responsibility that we have gathered national and international experts for this Forum for a two-way sharing of lessons and experiences.”

Despite all efforts and sacrifices, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has made the decision to grey-list Pakistan from the month of June 2018 for failing to curb money laundering and militant activity. This happened despite the Pakistani Foreign Office’s (FO) readiness to take further steps to curb terror financing, only days after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Islamabad on the global terror financing watch-list. The decision was taken during a meeting of the intergovernmental body that sets global standards against illicit finance.

The only bailout for Pakistan is a ‘mutually negotiated action plan’ as described by the FO, ‘to wipe of certain deficiencies in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) framework of Pakistan’, as the FATF has demanded from Pakistan.

On the other hand, the government of Pakistan claims to have taken numerous steps over the last few years to address these issues, including through the enactment of legislation, issuance of regulations and guidelines by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to the financial sector, establishment of the Financial Monitoring Unit and implementation of UNSC 1267 sanctions on the entities of concern, Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Filah-e-Insaniyat Foundation.

This negotiated action plan will stop Pakistan from being put on the ‘black list’. So, the on-going IICT Forum can be termed as Pakistan’s effort to prove itself a ‘cooperative country’ as the Forum’s way forward would be prepared by the many participating foreign experts. The format and extent of the forum shows that although the intervention is too late, it will still have a positive impact. The participation of a range of well-known experts from variety of sectors makes Pakistan more confident in devising ‘an action plan’ that would be acceptable to the FATF.

NACTA needs to understand that the inclusive action agenda and its implementation in letter and spirit should be consistently supported by a vigorous communication strategy. It is not just about doing something, but doing it in a manner that makes it visible to all. The multi-stakeholder communication shall not stop here, rather, different platforms of communication shall be established for a regular and consistent dissemination of achievements.

The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed

Published in Daily Times, April 6^th 2018.