Speaking at the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, he said that at the moment there is need to understand the external threats faced by the country, and internal anarchy and uncertainty is very harmful. "If we fail to ensure internal stability then we don't need any external foes," he added. He told the committee that following the launch of operations Zarb-e-Azb and Radd ul Fasaad and the National Action Plan, there has been significant decline in incidents of terrorism. He added that the current wave of terrorism is a result of cross-border infiltration into Pakistan.
It is unfortunate that the United States is blaming Pakistan for terrorism, ignoring that the Taliban in Afghanistan have gained control of over 60 percent of the country, he said. In such a situation, he said, the Taliban do not need any support from Pakistan.
Despite this, he said, Nato and Afghan forces have failed to tighten the noose on the Taliban, while Pakistan has started fencing the Afghan border to stop infiltration, and the fencing will be completed in two years.
At the same time, the Pakistani government is having to tackle the big challenge of repatriation of 3.5 Afghan refugees. The minister said that there are differences over FATA reforms and the government is trying to end these differences and wants to implement the reforms by trying to build a consensus. The committee recommended the Afghan refugees' forcible repatriation.
Briefing the committee on National Action Plan, Ihsan Ghani of the National Coordinator National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) said that the law enforcement agencies have conducted 213,501 combing operation and 3,996,722 stop and search operations.
He further said that the agencies conducted 12,882 intelligence-based operations and arrested 306,072 suspects. The coordinator said that since the approval of the NAP, 483 persons were executed and a total of 388 cases were transferred to special trial courts.
He said that as a result of countrywide operations the visibility of armed militias and display of weapon have been curtailed. Ihsan Ghani said that the government has earmarked a sum of Rs 1,643.019 million in the current and hired a building for the authority. He said that 1,373 cases have been registered for spreading hate speech and materials.
He said that a Choking Financing for Terrorism unit has been set up at provincial level and task force for choking terror financing has been set up in NACTA. The draft of model of facilitation of charities has been prepared and shared with the provinces, he added. He said that 8,150 people are at present included in the Fourth Schedule list and 5,089 accounts have been frozen. He said that the Counter Terrorism Force has been set up in all provinces and in Islamabad.
Ihsan Ghani said that the authority has finalized registration and data on madrassa reforms in consultation with Ittehad Tanzeemul Madaris and the federal and provincial government. "Provinces have been asked to build consensus on placing data collection and registration of seminaries," he added. Regarding communication network of terrorists, he said that 93.3 million SIM cards had been blocked but again some loopholes in the system were identified by the NACTA and the PTA has been asked to take steps to fix them.
The committee also discussed the issue of restrictions on movement of fertilizers in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and unanimously recommended the government to lift the ban and devise proper mechanism in this regard. The committee passed a resolution against President Donald Trump's tweet in which he levelled many charges against Pakistan.