Pak editorial says govt 'quietly acquiesced' into non-policy against extremism

The action plan initiated in the aftermath of the Taliban attack on Peshawar's Army Public School, which left more than 100 children dead, seems to have run out of steam as the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has quietly sunk back into a state of inaction, an editorial published in a Pakistani daily said.

In the wake of the Peshawar massacre, the government appeared to have belatedly understood the long-term perils of terrorism and that it could not be defeated using military operations unless the "enabling environment" spawned by extremist mosque-madressah-social welfare network is dismantled, reported The Dawn.

The government hurriedly floated a 20-point National Action Plan, shepherded the army-demanded 21st Amendment through the parliament and took a few scattered steps against militants. However, it now "seems to have run out of steam - and ideas and the will too," the editorial said.

Due to a lack of any meaningful follow-up actions, the attempts were quickly hijacked by the "religious right" who marched on streets holding protests against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and unspecified grievances against a non-existent new madressah policy.

Instead of pushing back, the PML-N government seems to have "quietly acquiesced once again into a non-policy against militancy and extremism," the editorial added.