Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: An inquiry commission, formed to probe the Quetta Civil Hospital bombing earlier this year, held in its report that the Interior Ministry is without clear leadership and direction; consequently, it is confused about its role in combating terrorism.

The report categorically stated that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had displayed little sense of ministerial responsibility and called only one meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) in more than three-and-a-half years.

The report further stated that Nisar met the head of a proscribed organisation, widely reported in the media with his photograph, but still denied doing so, and accepted the demands of the proscribed organisation regarding the Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs).

The 109-page report on terrorist attacks in Quetta on August 8, 2016, authored by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, was submitted before Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Thursday. The commission continuously worked for 56 days in finalising the report.

“The Ministry’s National Security Internal Policy is not being implemented. The officers of the ministry appear more interested in serving the minister than the people of Pakistan,” the report stated.

The report further stated that the National Action Plan (NAP) was not a plan in any structured or meaningful way, nor had its goals been accordingly monitored or implemented.

It said that the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) had been violated and proscribed organisations “continue their illegal activities”, while “new terrorist organisations are proscribed after long delays”. It also stated that some terrorist organisations had still not been proscribed or prosecuted. The inquiry report recommended that the ATA needed to be enforced, and terrorist organisations be proscribed without delay.

“Hypocrisy must stop,” the report stated, suggesting that there should be a nationwide streamlining of national policy and “all government servants need to abide by it, or face the consequences”.

“If the functionaries of the state had established a bank of forensic information on past attacks and pursued the cases, they may have prevented the attacks of August 8, 2016.”

According to the commission’s report, NACTA was not being implemented and the law had categorically failed. “NACTA is not fulfilling its statutory mandate,” it said, adding that the law had not been implemented by the members of its board of governors – which never met – and its executive committee – which met only once in three-and-a-half years.

The report, in its findings, further stated that complete lack of a counter-extremism narrative was deplorable, lamentable, and totally tragic.

“NACTA must be activated. It must do what the NACTA Act mandates. Periodic meetings need to take place of the board of governors and executive committee,” it stated.

The report further pointed out that the western borders were not being monitored, and even from the official crossings there was a free and unrestricted flow of people (including terrorists) and goods, like weapons, ammunition, and other contraband items).

Inquiry report stated that the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony was a moribund ministry and was not fulfilling its most basic responsibility of promoting inter-faith harmony.

Regarding the Balochistan government, the report stated that there was a breakdown in the implementation of laws, which led to repeated violation of rules without consequences, and “this has fostered a culture of nepotism”.

It said there were “unabashedly clear” instances of nepotism when unqualified individuals were illegally appointed. This included the illegal appointments of at least four secretaries, including the Health Department secretary, it stated.

“The people of Pakistan have been subjected to sustained terrorist attacks, which continue unabated, and deserve answers. Those who have failed the people of Pakistan need to be held accountable. Things cannot go on as they have been. Without top-tier accountability, it is unlikely systemic change will be possible,” Justice Qazi Faez Isa recommended in the report.