Joint intelligence directorate to be functional within months, Nisar tells NA

Interior minister presents his ministry's performance report

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar announced on Thursday that a joint intelligence directorate will commence work within a few months while mega centres of National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) will be created across the country by 2016.

“The interior ministry has taken measures to curb corruption in Nadra and Federal Investigation Authority (FIA). Further, efforts have been made to streamline the process of obtaining passports and computerised national identity cards,” Nisar said, while addressing the National Assembly on Thursday.



The interior minister said a performance report on the interior ministry’s two-and-a-half years performance has been prepared.

Nisar said his ministry played a crucial role in coordinating efforts between the various civil security agencies and the military. “This coordination led to a significant drop in terror activities across the country,” he upheld.

“We have had cooperation with Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) despite the fact that opposition parties are in the government in those provinces,” Nisar added.

The minister further said, “We want to create a new tradition of ministers’ accountability in the Parliament. Although I don’t say all is well but I have tried to create a tradition of accountability as government is accountable to the parliament.”

The interior minister went on to inform the lawmakers that his ministry shared more than 2,500 intelligence reports with government institutions within its tenure of 2.5 years, adding he wanted the Parliament to discuss his ministry’s performance.



Nisar added that while terrorism has largely been tackled, he warned that the threat has not been completely eliminated. “Although we have achieved substantial gains in our war against terrorism but they [terrorists] have just been marginalised and have not been eliminated completely.”

Nisar added that some militants have fled across the border, and the security apparatus of the country will maintain their momentum in combating the scourge of terrorism.

He said a lack of human resource is one of the major problems being faced by the country. “If a position in a government department goes vacant due to any reason, it takes months to find a suitable candidate to fill the vacant post,” Nisar told parliamentarians on the floor of the lower house of Parliament.

The security czar pointed out that the civil service used to be the backbone of the country but it has crippled and needs immediate attention.