Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal.

Minister for Interior, Ahsan Iqbal Friday said across the board implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) had resulted in reasonable decrease in incidents of terrorism in the country.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control here on implementation of NAP, he said the government was implementing NAP with full vigour and commitment through coordinated efforts with provinces.
Senator Rehman Malik chaired the meeting which was also attended by senators Shibli Faraz, Col (Retd) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Muhammad Ali Khan Saif and Fateh Muhammad, Secretary Interior and other senior official of the ministry.
Ahsan Iqbal said the incidents of sectarianism had also witnessed decrease and reached 23 in year 2017 from 176 in 2014.
He said the government with support of the nation would foil the nefarious designs of elements, trying to cause instability.
He said the NAP also helped a lot in controlling Karachi and Balochistan’s situation. The Cyber Crime Wing of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was being strengthened to curb activities of extremists on social media.
Moreover, he said matters on FATA reforms were being settled through consensus.
Ahsan Iqbal said rating agencies and other international institutions are acknowledging and appreciating the rapidly
improving economic situation of the country.
National Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), Ihsan Ghani also briefed the committee on 20-points NAP achievements.
Earlier, Rehman Malik said ban on urea/fertilizer had been causing losses for farmers community and asked the government to review the matter and find its solution.
He also presented a resolution against the US President’s anti-Pakistan statement which was passed unanimously by the committee.
The resolution said the US was ignoring Pakistan’s sacrifices in fight against terrorism. Pakistan had sacrificed more than 75,000 lives in fight against terrorism and suffered a loss of US $180 billion dollars.
The fight against terrorism had inflicted an unprecedented loss to Pakistan infrastructure.
The committee emphasized that the government should condemn US President statement on every forum.

Source: APP