Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The military leadership has rejected political leaders’ criticism of the security and intelligence agencies and said that any distracting and inciting comments are unhelpful and they will undermine the overall national efforts against terrorism.

According to the sources, the Pakistan Army is unhappy with the progress on the National Action Plan (NAP), as the authorities have not made any progress on eight of the 20 NAP points.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), media wing of the Pakistan Army, a high level security meeting was held at the GHQ with Army Chief General Raheel Sharif in the chair on Friday. At the meeting, senior military officials reviewed progress on the Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the NAP. The army chief said on this occasion that NAP was key to achieving the national objectives and a lack of progress on it was affecting the consolidation phase of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb. “Unless all prongs deliver meaningfully and all inadequacies are addressed, remnants of terrorism will continue to simmer and long-term peace and stability will remain a distant dream,” he said.

“We have come a long way in fighting this war and turning the tide. The nation has been standing by its security forces. While there has been a considerable improvement in the security situation and the dividend has started reaching the ordinary people, any distracting and inciting comments and theories by some quarters are unhelpful and undermining the overall national effort,” the army chief said.

General Sharif made it clear that a synchronised national response was the prime requirement at this time to successfully conclude the peace efforts. “I salute the people of Pakistan, all security forces and intelligence agencies, for their tireless efforts and sacrifices to bring about peace and stability. The forum reaffirmed its resolve to continue to contribute towards full spectrum national security,” the ISPR quoted the army chief as saying.

Sources said the army chief took a strong exception to the negative statements by some politicians and complained to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about this criticism at a meeting at Prime Minister’s House two days ago. The prime minister assured the army chief that the government would defend the security and intelligence agencies. Later, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan gave a policy statement on the security and intelligence agencies in the National Assembly.

Security sources told Daily times it was said at the meeting that government departments did not address eight of the 20 NAP points. Banned outfits were still working in the country with new names and the government had not taken sufficient measures to curb extremism in the country. No progress has been made on the issue of ferraris and reconciliation in Balochistan. Financing to terrorist groups has not been stopped completely. The FATA reforms process was moving at a very slow pace and the issue of repatriation of Afghan refugees has yet to be resolved. The army has already given its opinion on this issue. Despite all this, the repatriation of Afghan refugees has been delayed for another six months. Also, the army is not happy at the speed of disposal of criminal cases and delay in enactment of counterterrorism laws in the country.

On Thursday, the political and military leadership agreed to set up a taskforce to review the pace of implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).

A meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair continued discussions on implementation of the NAP in a befitting manner on the third consecutive day. Ongoing counterterrorism operations also came under discussion during the meeting.

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, federal ministers Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar, National Security Adviser Lt-Gen (Retd) Nasir Janjua and Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar were prominent among those who attended the meeting.

The taskforce will consist of representatives of the federal and provincial governments and heads of security agencies. Taskforce members will compile a report on implementation of all 26 points of the NAP.