An official source privy to the development told Business Recorder that following the directives of Ministry of Interior, three different committees have been constituted under the main committee headed by Secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs for developing the "national counter-terrorism narrative," formulation of a new curriculum and an audit of seminaries' funds.
The source said the committee constituted to prepare a draft of a narrative would hold a meeting with home secretaries as well provincial secretaries for religious affairs of all the provinces on February 12 about a narrative. On February 18, the committee would hold another meeting with religious scholars of different schools of thought and intellectuals to prepare a draft of that narrative, he said.
The source also said that the Ministry of Interior has sent a set of proposals to Ministry of Religious Affairs regarding the national counter-terrorism narrative that consists of a few pages which underscored the need for brotherhood, judicious use of power and taking care of minorities in the country. "If Ministry of Interior considers the proposal as draft of national counter-terrorism narrative, it would be a big joke with the narrative and the National Action Plan," the source added.
According to the statement issued by the Ministry of Interior, a draft of the "national counter-terrorism narrative" has been prepared which would be finalised soon after its approval by the Prime Minister. Spokesman Ministry of Interior said that federal Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan chaired a meeting to review progress on the NAP. The meeting was attended by Secretary Interior, National Co-ordinator National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), Director General (DG) Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Chief Commissioner and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad.
The meeting discussed threadbare the progress made so far on various components of the National Action Plan. National Co-ordinator NACTA briefed the meeting on various decisions made during the previous meeting on the subject. The meeting was informed that a bill aimed to make illegal mobile SIMS a cognisable offence has been tabled in the National Assembly and has been passed on to the concerned sub-committee. It was informed that a process was under way to enable PTA block any unwanted activity relating to extremism and militancy on social media.
The meeting was informed that as far as the security of media houses and media persons was concerned, a process was under way in provinces. District Administration Islamabad has already established a "Panic Button" alert system. It was informed that this facility has been installed in 10 media houses so far.
The meeting was further told that the district administration had conducted the security audit of 76 important buildings; and these were categorised from yellow to green and red vis-à-vis their security arrangements. The meeting was informed that work on developing a comprehensive plan on relocation and repatriation of Afghan refugees was also under way and the provinces have been requested to identify new camps and requisite infrastructure.
The meeting was informed that bank accounts of foreigners have been identified. The minister directed that accounts need to be identified. As per the directives of minister, on account of Hawala/Hundi, a total of 26 cases have been registered and 32 persons were arrested. The Minister directed the Interior Ministry to further fine-tune the procedure of proscription and put in place a proper system to ensure that such organisations don't re-emerge with new names and nomenclature.
The meeting was informed that so far 60 organizations have been proscribed with one on watch-list. The Minister directed Interior Secretary to co-ordinate with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and reconcile the national list with that of the UN list of proscribed organisations.
The meeting was informed that for combing purposes, as many as 16,344 operations have been conducted. As many as 12,462 persons were arrested and 140 out of them had terrorism links. It was informed that 3,265 cases of misuse of loudspeaker have been registered with 2,065 arrests and 1281 confiscation of equipment whereas 547 cases have been registered with regard to hate speeches and material.