It has been more than six months since the government of the PML-N came to power but we are still waiting for some sign that it has a grip on things, more so now since Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar’s press conference on Sunday at the Punjab House. Apparently, the press conference was intended to instil confidence in the people that the government was busy building a framework to counter the rising menace of terrorism. He was especially proud of the fact that a first draft had been made of the new National Security Policy (NSP). That is it? A first draft? After half a year in office and the spectre of terrorism growing more ominous by the day, for the interior minister to proudly boast that a first draft, which still requires the necessary approval from the federal cabinet, had been finalised seems to be slightly lacklustre and lazy on the government’s part. According to Mr Nisar, the NSP will be divided into three parts: one will be secret, one strategic and the third operational. One does not completely understand the need to keep a section of the NSP ‘secret’ from the masses that are being targeted by the militants on a daily basis but, as always, the authorities may be given the benefit of the doubt. However, one finds it hard to get over the fact that we are still only at the first draft stage with the minister saying that complete implementation of the NSP will still take a full one year. What is this government waiting for? We cannot be lulled into ill-found complacency especially after the fact that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader, Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike and it is believed that the militants must be aching to leave their signature card in a big way strewn across the land once again. The government still seems to be banking on the prospect of talks with the TTP, which seems like a misconceived way to ready oneself for militant ire. While Chaudhry Nisar has spoken of negotiations and peace being favoured options in the fight against terror, it would serve him and the PML-N government well to remember that the militants do not seem interested in any sort of peace and we should not gratify them with any sort of appeasement. The NSP must lay more emphasis on alternative, more aggressive methods to deal with the scourge of violence and bloodshed that has been engulfing this country for too long.
The minister also spoke at length of the recent controversies concerning the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and how the whole hoopla concerning the issue of voter thumb impression verification was being handed over to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from under the authority of NADRA. Whatever the truth about the whole scandal in which the chairman of NADRA was sacked by the provincial government only to be reinstated by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) just one day later, only one thing remains starkly clear: the PML-N government, in making hasty decisions, is losing credibility. The whole sacking saga has unleashed a messy can of worms in which the federal government is being accused of bipartisanship and trying to cover up the truth, whatever that may be. The PML-N has to proceed with caution. The Supreme Court (SC) has allowed the admission of the PTI’s petition concerning checking for electoral fraud in four constituencies. This just goes to show that there really is no end in sight at the moment for this election verification episode. If the PML-N has nothing to hide, it should let all due processes play out naturally without interference. Transparency, whether in tackling terrorism or sorting out allegations of election fraud, must be adhered to for the benefit of all concerned.
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