Pakistan - Nisar has no firm grip on security matters?

Addressing a news conference recently, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said "the national mood will have to be translated into national action", urging the people to keep an eye on suspicious elements and their activities. A responsible role of the citizens, he added, is necessary to prevent a recurrence of the Peshawar-like carnage. Towards that end, he had instructions and warnings to give to different segments of society. He asked owners of houses and hotels to maintain complete records of tenants and guests; otherwise they would he held responsible for any terrorist attack. The media needed to blackout terrorists and their sympathisers and come up with its own code of conduct, while the government would also enact legislation to bar the media from giving publicity to terrorists. Also, he said, mobile phone companies would be required to immediately block illegal SIMs, adding the warning that in future terrorism cases would be registered against companies whose SIMs are found to have been used in terrorist activities. 

These are all important measures. Questions, nonetheless, remain about the government's own resolve to eliminate the scourge of terrorism. Public vigilance by citizens and home and hotel owners surely can help. But first the government needs to put in place secure telephone lines for reporting suspicious individuals or activities, and properly publicise them too. It should not have taken an incident like the schoolchildren's massacre for the Interior Ministry to try and block unregistered SIMs that are known to be used by terrorists to communicate with their handlers as well as to trigger explosive devices at public places. The minister seems to have discovered this danger only after the Peshawar tragedy, for which he revealed, terrorists had used five cellphone SIMs issued by a mobile company the same day in the name of a woman - presumably, a case of fake identity. As regards the media's role, surely they need to work out a code of conduct for covering terrorism-related stories, ensuring terrorists and their sympathisers do not get any publicity. Dwelling on a common concern, Chaudhry Nisar said 90 percent of the seminaries are not involved in terrorism, and that "we have to isolate those who are involved in terrorist activities." It makes sense not to stir the hornet's nest at this point in time. But terrorism cannot be defeated completely without streamlining the affairs of seminaries a large majority of which, one way or another, serves as breeding grounds of violent extremists. 

A notable aspect of what the Interior Minister had to say at the news conference is the shifting of responsibility to others: the people, hotel proprietors, and home owners. He himself has little to show for his efforts. As a matter of fact, he is yet to translate into action the announcement he made nearly two years ago to set up a joint intelligence directorate under the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA). This vital anti-terrorism body failed to get off the ground because of an unsavoury turf battle. Who controlled it should have mattered less than what it was meant to do. In any case, the Army has already been carrying out, as part of its Zarb-e-Azb offensive, intelligence-based operations against terrorists and their facilitators in different parts of the country. The Interior Ministry needs to put its own acts together and do all that is necessary to make NACTA an effective counter-terrorism outfit.