Executive Summary
The 20-point National Action Plan to Counter Terrorism adopted by an All Parties Conference chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan on January 2, 2015 serves as the landmark consensus blue print for combatting terrorism and violent extremism in Pakistan. The 20-point NAP has been described, both by the civil and military leadership, as the most important road map for the struggle against terrorism in the country. The NAP is also significant because it has the rare consensus of otherwise bitterly opposed political forces besides the civil-military agreement. Both Civil and Military leaderships have repeatedly expressed their strong commitment to implement the plan in letter and spirit.
Despite this assigned centrality to its importance, Federal and Provincial Governments have not regularly made available a progress status on the implementation of the NAP. While the NAP provides a broad framework of action in its 20 points, a relative opaqueness seems to engulf the process of monitoring mechanism on its individual points. While at the Federal level, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) has been assigned with the responsibility to track progress, lately the Prime Minister also constituted an Implementation and Review Committee, on August 15, 2016 under the convenorship of Lt. Gen (Retired) Nasser Khan Janjua, National Security Advisor. In addition, apex committees were constituted both at the Federal level and in the four Provinces to act as the forums for civil-military coordination and to oversee the implementation progress of the NAP. Despite these mechanisms in place, status of implementation of the NAP across Pakistan’s Federal and Provincial Governments remains unclear. Perhaps, it is due to this vagueness that the pace and progress of implementation has also been a subject of some divergent views among various stakeholders including communication emerging from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) alluding to the continuing dissatisfaction of the military leadership with the progress of implementation of the NAP.
It is in view of the high importance of the NAP and questions about its progress of implementation that PILDAT has undertaken a citizens’ initiative to monitor the progress of implementation of the NAP Pakistan. PILDAT has sought the data on implementation status from Federal and Provincial Governments. This Monitor depicts implementation status of NAP with a focus on Punjab while developments across the country are also noted. Where focusing on Punjab, this Monitor is largely based on data obtained from the Provincial Government of the Punjab. By undertaking the monitoring of the progress on implementation of the NAP and its public dissemination, PILDAT initiative aims to serve the purpose of advocacy for effective implementation.
This Monitor, the first of its kind, assesses the status of implementation of NAP in Punjab from the citizens’ perspective so as to highlight the necessity of Government’s publicly sharing periodic status of implementation of the NAP. We strongly believe that greater transparency and more frequent public reporting on the progress of implementation will promote public confidence in the Governments and their ability to effectively implement the NAP. We do, however, concede that there may be areas of the NAP implementation which may need to be kept confidential due to security reasons.
The implementation status of NAP in Punjab for January 2015 – December 2016 is shown in the table below using the traffic light system:
| No. |
Point |
Implementation Status as of December 2016 |
| 1 |
Implementation of death sentences of those convicted of terrorism
|
|
| 2 |
Special courts under the supervision of Army. The duration of these courts would be two years
|
|
| 3 |
Militant outfits and armed gangs will not be allowed to operate in the country
|
|
| 4 |
NACTA, the anti-terrorism institution, will be strengthened
|
|
| 5 |
Strict action against the literature, newspapers, and magazines promoting hatred, extremism, sectarianism, and intolerance
|
|
| 6 |
Choking financing for terrorist and terrorist organizations
|
|
| 7 |
Ensuring against re-emergence of proscribed organizations
|
|
| 8 |
Establishing and deploying a dedicated counter terrorism force
|
|
| 9 |
Taking effective action against religious persecution
|
|
| 10 |
Registration and regulation of religious seminaries
|
|
| 11 |
Ban on glorification of terrorist and terrorist organizations through print and electronic media
|
|
| 12 |
Administrative and development reforms in FATA with immediate focus on repatriation of IDPs
|
|
| 13 |
Communication network of terrorists will be dismantled completely
|
|
| 14 |
Measures against abuse of social media for terrorism
|
|
| 15 |
Zero-tolerance for militancy in Punjab
|
|
| 16 |
Ongoing operation in Karachi will be taken to its logical end
|
|
| 17 |
Balochistan Government to be fully empowered for political reconciliation with complete ownership by all stakeholders
|
|
| 18 |
Dealing firmly with sectarian terrorists
|
|
| 19 |
Formulation of a comprehensive policy to deal with the issue of Afghan refugees, beginning with registration of all refugees
|
|
| 20 |
Revamping of the Criminal Justice System
|
|
Key
| 1 |
|
Green : The implementation process has worked well. Some improvements are needed. (Progress good)
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| 2 |
|
Green-Amber : The implementation process has worked relatively well. Improvements should be made. (Progress satisfactory)
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| 3 |
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Amber-Red : The implementation process has been relatively poor. Significant improvements should be made. (Progress somewhat unsatisfactory)
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| 4 |
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Red : The implementation process has been poor overall. Immediate and major changes need to be mad References : [1] ‘Nawaz removes moratorium
on death penalty’ published in Dawn can be accessed at: [2] ‘Death penalty moratorium
lifted completely in Pakistan: Officials’ published in Dawn can be accessed
at: [3] Data obtained from Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Punjab [4] ‘The sun has set on
Pakistan’s military courts – here is why it should never rise again’ published
in Dawn can be accessed at: [5] ibid. [6] Data obtained from CTD Punjab [7] Full text of the law
can be accessed at: [8] ibid. [9] ‘Ordinance promulgated
to set up Punjab Safe Cities Authority’ published in Dawn can be accessed
at: [10] Full text of the
law can be accessed at: [11] Full text of the
law can be accessed at: [12] ‘Punjab Govt slaps
ban on proscribed organizations to collect sacrificial animal hides’ published
in The Nation on August 30, 2016 can be accessed at: [13] Data obtained from CTD Punjab [14] ‘Banned outfits still
recruiting Jihadis: official report’ published on Geo News on May 28, 2016.
The News Report can be accessed at: [15] The complete composition
of NACTA Board of Governors can be found in the NACTA Act 2013, which can
be accessed at: [16] ibid. [17] ibid. [18] ‘Nacta made fully
operational, says Nisar’ published in Dawn can be accessed at: [19] ‘No authority to
counter terrorism’ published in TNS can be accessed at: [20] The announcement
took place on a session of the Senate on December 22nd, 2016.
The News Report can be accessed at: [21] Data obtained from CTD Punjab [22] According to data obtained from FIA, Lahore by PILDAT, out of the 138 accounts of Madrassas that FIA, Lahore received from CTD Punjab and conducted its analysis on: i. Number of accounts in which no record found: 72 ii. Number of accounts in which closing balance is less than Rs. 1,000: 23 iii. Number accounts in which closing balance is between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1,00,000: 32 iv. Number of accounts in which closing balance is between in Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs. 5,00,000: 07 v. Number of accounts in which closing balance is above than Rs. 5,00,000: 04 [23] Data obtained from FIA, Lahore [24] Full text of the
ATA 1997 can be accessed at: [25] Full list of proscribed
organizations can be accessed at: Some of the following organizations are old faces of new organisations as per CTD Punjab data:
[26] ‘1500 corporals get
in Anti-Terrorism Force’ published in The Nation can be accessed at: [27] Data obtained from CTD Punjab [28] The attack took place
in Lahore on March 15, 2015. Details can be found in the News Report,
’14 dead, 75 injured in attack on Lahore’s Christian community’ published
in The Express Tribune, which can be accessed at: [29] The two incidents
took place in Jhelum on November 21, 2015 and November 21, 2015. Details
can be found in the News Report, ‘Ahmedi place of worship set ablaze in
Jhelum, riots erupt after blasphemy allegations’ published in Dawn, which
can be accessed at: [30] The attack took place
on March 27, 2016. Details can be found in the News Report, ‘At least 72
killed in suicide blast as terror revisits Lahore’ published in Dawn, which
can be accessed at: [31] Full text of the
law can be accessed at: [32] Full text of the
law can be accessed at: [33] Data obtained by CTD Punjab. [34] Full text of the
Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board Act 2015 can be accessed at: [35] Full text of the
Punjab Societies Registration Act 1860 can be accessed at: [36] ‘Pemra monitoring
TV coverage of banned groups’ published in Dawn can be accessed at: [37] ’10-year timeline
to bring Fata on a par with KP’ published in Dawn can be accessed at: [38] The data shared in
the Senate on March 10, 2017 by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
during the Question-Answer session can be accessed at: [39] Full text of the
law can be accessed at: [40] According to data obtained from CTD Punjab. [41] Data on from January
2015 – December 2016 is not available with PILDAT. Hence, the data shared
here was presented in the Senate on March 10, 2017 by Interior Minister
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan during the Question-Answer session and can be accessed
at: [42] ‘Balochistan Reconciliation:
625 insurgents surrendered in six months’ published in The Express Tribune
can be accessed at: [43] Some of these reports can be accessed at; i. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1042338/balochistan-reconciliation-625-insurgents-surrendered-in-six-months/ ii. https://tribune.com.pk/story/938017/balochistan-insurgency-400-militants-surrender-on-independence-day/ iii. https://tribune.com.pk/story/903261/insurgency-in-balochistan-49-militants-surrender/ [44] Data obtained from CTD Punjab. [45] ‘Candidate backed
by banned party wins by-poll’ published in Dawn can be accessed at: [46] According to data obtained by CTD Punjab, the main areas of concentration of Afghan refugees are: Mianwali (21,661), Attock (17,390), Rawalpindi (23,843), Gujrat (9,921), Chakwal (16,645), Sargodha (799) and Lahore (506) [47] Amendments can be
viewed in the The Punjab Prohibition of Expressing Matters on Walls Act,
1995 at: [48] Full text of Punjab
Special Protection Unit Act 2016 can be accessed at: [49] Full text of The
Punjab Civilian Victims of Terrorism (Relief and Rehabilitation) Act 2016
can be accessed at: 
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