Nawaz Sharif for bold steps against terrorism

President Pakistan Muslim League-N Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said we have to make collective efforts for restoring the lost image of the country throughout the world, and we will have to take bold stance for eliminating terrorism by leaving apathy so that the true image of Pakistan could be revived.
Nawaz Sharif pledged that we would play our role for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan sincerely and would not hesitate for rendering any sacrifice. He said Pakistan was the best gift of the Quaid-e-Azam and we had to come forward for changing its destination. “The present government has spared no effort for maligning the image of the country and the outsiders “aghyar” took full benefit of it and imposed wrong policies on Pakistan. Time has come that the dignity of the country could be enhanced. It is only possible if we respect the judiciary, abide by the law, through national unity and the outsiders should not be allowed to become the part our foreign policy,” he said, adding that the country was very beautiful and we had to eliminate the blot of terrorism through the beautiful colours of photographs.

Karbala Gamay Shah tragedy goes amiss

Opposition Leader at the Punjab Assembly Ch Zaheeruddin on Thursday was absent from the House when an important Call Attention Notice about Karbala Gamay Shah tragedy was to be discussed, and the Treasury-cum-government would have been grilled since the latter – seeing its failure in curtailing acts of terrorism – has already transferred Secretary Home Department and AIG (Vigilance) police.
Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan simply apologised to the ‘Chief Minister-in-waiting’ since the time for attending to the Call Attention Notices had lapsed. “The mover should be present on the Floor,” added the Speaker. The second Notice was also of the Opposition member Muhammad Shafique Khan regarding looting of a passenger bus on the Multan Road near Jumber, but he was also absent like his leader, and was meted out the same treatment by the Treasury.
Opposition member Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari’s request for pending the Notices was not entertained when Minister Law Rana Sanaullah mentioned that it would be a violation of rules of the Assembly.
Ch Zaheer’s Notice had raised three important questions. The govt was quizzed, firstly about its failure in making foolproof arrangements for a short route despite prior information; secondly, on-duty sleeping cops in a mosque and punishment handed down to the officers and officials found indulgent in recklessness.
Later, Rana Sana, while responding to an Adjournment Motion about the theft of ‘Naalain Mubarak’ from the Badshahi Mosque, told the House that a special team was probing the matter, and members would be informed about it.

Board for bettering police, madaris, fighting terrorism

As a part of intervention in strategic areas of divergent nature, the Punjab government is gearing up to finalise the Punjab Security Board, which is being considered as a multi-faceted organ, but primarily aimed at bettering the policing and fighting terrorism across the province.
For this, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has given nod for the formation of the Board, which is in the inception planning stage. The CM is the Chairman of the PSB, while law minister, two MNA and equal number of MPAs (to be nominated by the CM), Chief Secretary Punjab, the Provincial Police Officer, and administrative secretaries of Home and Public Prosecution departments are the members of the Board.
As per the sources, to improve the law and order situation, the Board will review the policing in the province, besides improving the police training regime and the ever-troublesome Thana Culture. Secondly, the Board also aims at accelerating the access to justice programme. In this regard, the PPO, Secretaries Home and Prosecution departments would shoulder the responsibility for assigning approved tasks to the implementation committee. Moreover, actionable proposals for improving human and electronic intelligence and citizen-centric intelligence system will be rendered as well.
In order to improve the working of the police and prosecution, the Board will develop police deployment strategy for ensuring preventive policing. Secondly, for improved investigation, detection scorecard for investigators will be developed, while tracking the prosecution and instituting appropriate rewards and penalties for prosecution’s successes and failures. On the other hand, the forensic science labs will be operationlised with an out-reachable collective capacity.
For the police training regime, four steps have been visualised which include defining skill matrix for each level of policing, conducting Training Need Assessment (TNA) against the skill matrix defined, proposing appropriate training courses and developing proposals for establishing an external certification agency.
In order to accelerate access to justice programme, proposals to optimise the benefits and a monitoring system to measure outcome indicators of the Programme will be developed, and for which Chairman Planning and Development Board, Secretaries Law and Prosecution departments would be responsible.
For improving the Thana Culture – a problematic area being ambitiously pursued – Secretaries Home and Human Rights departments, and the PPO have been tasked to come up with proposals for activating Police Station Record Office Management Information System (PROMIS), proposing a mechanism for addressing FIR registration denial, implementing Citizen Feedback Model, developing police station scorecard for presenting station’s performance to the Provincial Security Board on monthly basis and lastly, activating existing complaint redressal system, that is, Police Complaint Authority and Public Safety Commission.
As part of the Madaris Reforms Policy, besides identifying the extremist madaris, competing non-extremist madaris will be established, and curricula of all the religious seminaries will be assessed. Secondly, the periodical inspection regime of all madaris will be ensured.
Moreover, the Danish School System will be made more attractive for religious-minded households, and the admission design of the System will be modified for getting maximum number of students at primary level.
Also, the high militancy support areas will be identified by using activists’ domicile profiles, and interventions will be developed for addressing inter-regional service delivery imbalance.
The Board, through the Health Department, has been asked for expanding Chief Minister’s Primary Health Care Initiative for better coverage of all districts of the Southern Punjab.
Lastly, the Board will review hate literature in order to develop counter narratives, and engage religious scholars for the cause of countering terrorism. Secondly, proposals will be developed for regulating content on purely religious channels.

Terrorists to be exposed to media

The Punjab government on Monday fixed Rs 17 million as head money of 10 terrorists suspected to be involved in the terrorist attacks in various parts of the province.

On the other hand, the Federal Government, through its new policy, has issued instructions to the provinces for bringing the captured terrorists to the media.
From among the terrorists, four belong to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Northern Areas. This figure is leading among the 10 mentioned in the list, issued by the Home Department.

From the Punjab, district Sargodha lead the rest of the province with three terrorists named for the head money, while Lahore, Rawalpindi and Sheikhupura districts have one each terrorist belonging to these regions.

Seven of the terrorists carry Rs 2 million as head money, while the rest have been tagged worth Rs 1 million each.

Moreover, the reward is divided into two categories, that is, for transmitting information leading to their arrests or getting them killed.

The list of these terrorists has been given to the law enforcement agencies, including the Police.

The list carries names from across the country, while most of them are from the Punjab. Ikram Ullah from North Waziristan, Abdullah alias Saddam, Faiz Muhammad and Abdul Rehman alias Noman from Akhora Khattak carry head money of Rs 2 million each, while district Sargodha’s Haroon alias Iyas and Muhammad Tayyab carry a prize of Rs 2 million either for arresting them alive or dead.

Rs 2 million have been fixed as head money for Nafees-ur-Rehman of district Rawalpindi, while Rs 1 million has been figured for Abdul Hameed Wattoo of Sheikhupura.
On the other hand, for Saeed from Sargodha and Imran Khalil from Lahore, Rs 1 million each would be given as a reward for their arrests.

Source seeking strict anonymity have confided that these men were involved in aiding and supporting the terrorist through divergent means, when they carried attacks in different parts of the province, especially three attacks in Lahore, that is, March 3 (the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked near Liberty Chowk, March 30 (the Manawan Police Training Centre was struck and put under siege by the terrorists) and the most recent one is that of the suicide attack on May 27 at the Police Emergency Response Centre 15, and the office of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). “These three attacks had actually shaken the very basis of the ‘protectionist policy’ of the provincial government and the law enforcement agencies, especially the police, which is supposed to act as the first deterrent against any such attacks. Now a well-coordinated effort is required at every level, including the ordinary people, so that these people with nefarious designs, especially from the Punjab, could be apprehended or killed in order to tear down the network of the terrorist, which will be the first step towards obstructing the terrorists’ attacks,” observed the source.

Moreover, to create a well-coordinated effort between the Centre and the four provinces at curbing the terrorism, as per the instructions of the Federal Government, the provinces have been asked to bring the apprehended terrorist to the media so that the masses could be given details about their future plans and their track-record, simultaneously exposing them to the people.

The Interior Ministry has written a letter to the Police and other law enforcement agencies in this regard. “The aim is to expose the nefarious designs of the terrorist, bring to fore the people associated with them and supporting them, and describe how other countries are funding them,” confided the source, seeking anonymity.