Nacta was initially set up in 2009, but was soon embroiled in issues pertaining to its administrative control and mandate. Resource constraints and wrangling over its legal status has caused delays in making it potent. Simultaneously, the requirements for integrating loosely coordinated efforts to combat terrorism grow greater, making it the need of the day for a coherent and well-coordinated CT policy. Nacta needs to immediately start preparing comprehensive national CT/CE strategies and start developing CT/CE action plans to monitor implementation of the same by the government. This is essential to foster inter-agency cooperation in Pakistan, which will tremendously benefit all stakeholders, not to mention that it will bring all law-enforcement agency (LEA) institutions closer together.
Extremism as a philosophy is deeply ingrained and rapidly spreading in large sections of Pakistani society. Representations of extremism in the media, both local and international, are also blurred by the same indistinct categorisation of origin and purpose, which may be affecting strategies and policies towards containment of extremism and radicalisation of certain groups and communities. Constraints in carrying out extensive research on extremism are due to lack of resources and information, whereas even if information is made available, the reliability of the same is questionable. Also, the politics of research may not allow accuracy of information, whereas sources of accurate information may not be available for academic analysis due to security constraints. Subjectivity of opinions is another issue affecting objective analysis, especially since historical data is not available in the majority of areas which need to be investigated and there has to be dependence on subjective analysis and hypothetical conclusions. Nacta now has the capability to bridge all of these gaps, only if the intent is there.
It should be the government’s priority to identify and document reasons for growing extremism within Pakistan and list identified extremist groups through available sources of information. It is the need of the hour to identify vulnerable groups and individuals with tendencies to join extremist factions. These groups will include male and female students of public and private education centres/madrassas, the unemployed youth, juveniles under trial and imprisoned and adults. This should be the thrust of Nacta's CE and CT strategy and if it does things right, an entity like Nacta would be invaluable in eliciting the right responses.
Such a strategy would require extensive consultations from opinion leaders and information gatekeepers throughout the country to make the strategy paper more representative of national consensus about terrorism in Pakistan. This would entail widespread consultations with experts, LEAs, religious scholars, interviews with interred terrorists, civil society, etc. This component would require that Nacta becomes integrated and comfortable in not only the domain of the public sector, but also in the wider sphere of citizens and civil society.
Nacta can be instrumental at not only creating a viable CT strategy but also in raising public awareness on the perils of letting terrorism and radicalisation grow and on ways and means to curb it. It should also undertake efforts to generate realisation of radicalisation issues, religious extremism and terrorism, and secondly, to counter radicalisation and terrorism by creating required responses on ideological, educational, academic, legislative and social fronts. It can also help in creating a constituency for CT and peace among a cross section of Pakistani intelligentsia, media, policymakers and religious scholars.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2013.
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An informative article I must say... Keep up the good work.
~~~~~~~and, may one ask , what on earth is the use of NACTA if nothing in it is being implemented ?
Most important of all is delivering the desired results against 'terrorism and extremism.' The obstacles are many, like, release of funds, caste and biradari systems, tribal allegiances and political coalitions unbiased selection of personnnel. If these are overcome, then Pakistan can stand tall. Salams