News
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Govt formulating strategy against terror, NA body told
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Government is formulating ‘Counter Terrorism Strategy’ to grasp the wave of terrorism in country with an effective way and the strategy will be presented to federal cabinet for approval, Interior Secretary Qamaruzaman Chaudhry informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior on Tuesday.
The meeting was presided over by MNA Abdul Qadir Patel. Interior Secretary was responding to queries of members, who sought the detail of the Mehran Naval Base, which came under attack by the terrorists from Sunday night to Monday noon, and wanted the secretary to give the information to this particular incident.
Although, the members of committee pressed for the Karachi issue to be debated in the meeting, the secretary declared that at the moment he had no new information about this tragic terrorist act, besides Qamar said it was better to such questions from defense secretary as the areas came under attack fall in his jurisdiction.
He however, spelled out the overall security situation and measures being taken by the government to deal with this menace prevailing in the country.
Mentioning that National Counter Terrorism Authority is an effective institution, he agreed with the observations of the members that effective measures were needed to further strength the intelligence network to curb the terrorists acts.
In response to remarks of MNA Bushra Gohar about the erection of barriers on roads and armed personnel of the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) had not been serving the purpose. To that the secretary replied that along with these steps, strengthening of intelligence network was also being done to prevent such attacks.
Regarding the security in Islamabad Ms Gohar pointed out that whatever security cover had been provided in the city were just meant for five percent of elite, and the common man was on the mercy of terrorists as no effective arrangements were in sight to protect the masses.
“Terrorists elements mostly target the prominent places and persons, that’s why extra security measures have been taken around the President House, Prime Minister House, Parliament and Supreme Court etc, Qamar apprised the members.
Qamar told them that Islamabad Safe City project was in pipeline, as it would be sent to ECNEC for seeking the green signal from the government after the approval from Central Development Working Party (CDWP).
Secretary’s words appeared to fail to soothe the members viz-a-viz the security arrangements in the capital as these words triggered the remarks from Bushra Gohary pointing towards the Secretary that in fact the major concern is “they don’t know what they are doing”.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk