After a lull more than a year a terrorist attack occurred in the Punjab province capital city of Lahore. The frontline provinces of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Baluchistan frequently bear the brunt of such attacks. A vehicle of Elite Force was hit by a suspected suicide bomb blast near Data Darbar which killed five personal and three civilians, while 26 others were injured. It happened near the Darbar gate which is used for the entry of female visitors. The security usually remains tight near the shrine as it was previously targeted in 2010 in which more than 40 people had perished.
As usual the incident was followed by a barrage of stereotype condemnation statements from the President, Prime Minister, Federal Ministers and political leaders. But there has always been lake of seriousness to work out a comprehensive National Security Policy keeping in view the continued war in Afghanistan and using its soil by India for acts of terror in Pakistan. The recent manifestation of this oblivious attitude towards inland security is the outburst of opposition Senators in Senate on a non-issue of the appointment of RazaBaqir as governor State Bank of Pakistan.
Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and former Chief Minister of Punjab Shabaz Sharif in his condemnation statement claimed that there was complete peace in the province during his five years tenure of government. This is sheer misstatement in view of the incident of terror that took place in the previous PML-N government in Punjab. On February 13, 2017 a suicide bomber killed 13 people and injured 85 others outside Punjab Assembly in a protest rally. Two senior police officers DIG Traffic Capt (Retd) Ahmad Mobeen and SSP Operation ZahidGondal had also been killed in that attack. A terrorist attack in the city of Lahore in March last year killed 9 people while a major blast in a park on the eve of Easter in 2016 had killed more than 70 people.
The leadership of opposition political parties does seem keen on the implementation of National Action Plan. The tenure of military courts has expired and they have refused to support the government to make fresh legislation for extending the tenure of these courts to decide the under trial cases and take up the new ones. The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved a uniform curriculum for all educational institutions including 30,000 religious seminaries.
The federal government had called the meeting of the parliamentary leaders of all political parties in February for consultation to agree on a line of action for the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) for which foreign minister Shah MehmoodQuerishi wrote invitation letters. But the meeting had to be called off as former President AsifZardari and Central Amir of JUI (F) MaulanaFazluRehman declined to attend it. The leadership of opposition parties, particularly of PPP, does want third time extension in the tenure of Military Courts.
It is also very unfortunate that political leadership has adopted an indifferent attitude towards reforming the criminal justice system which was included as an important point in the NAP. Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice AsifSaeedKhosa, while speaking at a national conference on “Expeditious Justice Initiative” five days ago regretted that Parliament did not accord priority to Justice System. He emphasised that it is for the state and legislature to come up with clear laws which are unambiguous and easy to apply. The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan had sent 70 reports to the parliament and Law Ministry for attending different parts of laws, which needed amendments or substitutions of different provisions. None of these reports have been taken up either by the government or parliament to reform the justice system.
The Judicial Commission report released in December, 2016 on Quetta Civil Hospital attack on August 8 has exposed certain glaring shortcomings in the Interior Ministry’s National Security and Internal Policy. The report also emphasised the refinement of NAP, monitoring and implementation of its goals. It is now for the ruling and opposition political parties to realise the gravity of security situation and put their heads together for the refinement and implementation of all goals envisaged in this plan of national importance.
