Investment in social sector to achieve permanent peace in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Speakers at an International Counter Terrorism Conference here on Wednesday said Pakistan had won hard earned peace by defeating the threat of terrorism with efforts spread over years and now needed to undertake sweeping reforms and make major investments in social sector to achieve permanent peace and stability.
The conference was organized by National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) and UNODC.
Former head of NACTA Tariq Parvez, former police officer Shakeel Durrani, a representative of interior ministry and heads of counter terrorism departments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took part in a panel discussion during the conference and shed light on different aspects of National Action Plan (NAP) and National Internal Security Policy (NISP).
Tariq Parvez said Pakistan successfully fought terrorism and considerably reduced the deaths from acts of terrorism from 1794 in 2014 to 668 in 2017.
He said with the NAP, the government restored peace in Karachi and curbed insurgencies.
The heads of provincial counter terrorism departments told that Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa overcame the rising threat of terrorism and took effective action against proscribed organizations.
Shakeel Durrani said Pakistan’s internal security challenges emanate from multiple factors which include ethnic sectarian fault lines, socio economic or political grievances, urbanization, population explosion and lack of educational and health facilities.
The panellists said district was the basic administrative unit and first interaction point between state and citizens. The citizens should be provided quality facilities in education, health and other social sectors to create a peaceful environment for people.
They stressed that Pakistan needed to be part of efforts to create a peaceful region.
They emphasized need for engagement of state with people by going deep into the district and to union, village and neighbourhood council levels.
They said understanding topography was a key component of counter terrorism anywhere. Usage of modern technology by terrorists had turned dimensions of terrorism more complicated than ever before. Counter terrorism efforts needed to be renewed in detecting and pre-empting unanticipated acts of terrorism.
Fighting terrorism with modern technology was increasingly proving effective in counter terrorism measures and geo mapping was a suitable technological tool for the purpose. Since 2001, more than 18,000 terrorist attacks were perpetrated by violent proscribed organizations.
They said under the NAP, information and communication technology had been embedded to map local narrative, issues and solutions. Linkages had been directly envisioned with the concerned planning and development authorities for policy and development interventions.