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The National Action Plan is an action plan that was established by the Government of Pakistan in January 2015 to crack down on terrorism and to supplement the ongoing anti-terrorist offensive in North-Western Pakistan. It is considered as a major coordinated state retaliation following the deadly Peshawar school attack. The plan received unprecedented levels of support and co-operation across the country's political spectrum, inclusive of the federal and provincial governments.
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It combines foreign and domestic policy initiatives aimed to crack down on and eventually eliminate proscribed organisations across the country. The plan was provided as the framework for the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan which established speedy trial military courts for offences relating to terrorism. It has also led to the resumption of capital punishment and mandatory re-verification through fingerprint recognition of all subscribers on mobile telephony.
The National Action Plan authorises the Foreign, Finance, and other ministerial departments to reach out to the friendly Muslim countries to clamp down on financiers of sectarian and terrorist networks operating against Pakistan.
Background
On 16 December 2014, 7 gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, included one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 145 people, including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age. A rescue operation was launched by the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all seven terrorists and rescued 960 people.
Establishment of the plan
On 24 December 2014 political parties conference chaired by Nawaz Sharif reached consensus over the issue of setting up military courts for tackling terrorism cases in the country, along with a wider plan to tackle terrorism.
We have to act fast and whatever is agreed we have to implement it immediately...this agreement is a defining moment for Pakistan and we will eliminate terrorists from this country.
On 24 December the Prime Minister (PM) in a televised address to the nation announced the 'National Action Plan' (NAP) to deal with terrorism. According to the Interior Minister, the plan was prepared in the light of the decisions taken by All Parties Conference. For this purpose the PM established the National Action Committee consisting of the members from all the political parties and decision were taken in the light of the recommendations of this committee. The PM's address gave the following outline of the National Action Plan, the points of which were decided in the APC.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) called off the protests and participated in the APC. However, it abstained from voting the bill and amendment. Jamiat e Ulema e Islam Fazal Rahman Group (JUI F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) also abstained from voting. JI proposed that the word religion should be omitted from the text of the bill. JUI insisted that the word sect is objectionable. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) voted in favour of the bill and amendment.