PM forms committee to revisit NACTA role
Committee to submit its recommendations to the premier within a week
PM Imran Khan. PHOTO: GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN
ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Imran Khan has formed a committee to revisit the role and functions of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) to make it ‘a truly proactive organisation’ in line with the fast-changing ground realities.
The first-ever meeting of Nacta’s board of governors held on Tuesday at the PM Office. Chaired by the PM, the moot skipped the entire agenda placed before it for discussion which included approvals to financial and administrative decisions taken by the authority since it got autonomous status some five years ago.
The decision to form a committee to review Nacta’s role and functions – although clearly described in the Nacta Act 2013 – came following an initial briefing over the working and performance of the authority given by Mehar Khaliq Dad Lak, Nacta’s newly-appointed national coordinator.
A federal minister who attended the meeting said Lak in his briefing criticised his predecessors and the past government for their failure to yield the desired results. Taking clue from Lak’s briefing, PM Khan announced reviewing the Nacta’s mandate.
PM Imran to review implementation of 100-day plan during Lahore visit today
“New ground realities call for revisiting the role of the organisation in order to make it a truly proactive and sophisticated organisation with a well-defined mandate,” Khan said, according to a statement issued by the PM Office.
The meeting decided to constitute a committee for the purpose that would submit its recommendations to the premier in a week’s time. However, no one has been appointed as head of the committee. According to sources in the interior ministry, Minister of State for Interior Shaharyar Afridi is most likely to be given the task.
The statement says that the PM deplored the fact that not even a single meeting of the Nacta board of governors could be convened since its inception. The PM pointed out that the neglect of the past government resulted in lack of focus on improving functioning of an important organisation.
Created in 2009, Nacta was granted administrative and financial autonomy in 2013. The body is answerable to its board of governors headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The board of governors is supposed to provide strategic vision and policy oversight to Nacta.
Pakistan will not tolerate any act of hostility: PM Imran
However, since 2013 none of the former PMs, including Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, convened a single meeting of the board of governors.
The meeting also reviewed in detail the progress on implementation status of 20-point National Action Plan drafted after the December 2014 Army Public School attack in Peshawar which left at least 140 dead, mostly children. The plan envisaged wide-ranging measures to pursue the war on terror.
The PM said Pakistan had come a long way in its fight against the terrorism and extremism. “In this struggle, we have offered the highest sacrifices of the lives of thousands of our civilians and the security personnel,” he said.
Lauding services and contributions of the armed forces, intelligence agencies, police and other law enforcement and security agencies, the prime minister observed that improved security situation was a result of the combined efforts of all stakeholders.
The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Finance Minister Asad Umar, Law Minister Farogh Naseem, the chief ministers of all four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir PM, State Minister Shaharyar Afridi, the Inter-Services Intelligence chief and the secretary interior among others.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has formed a committee to revisit the role and functions of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) to make it ‘a truly proactive organisation’ in line with the fast-changing ground realities.
The first-ever meeting of Nacta’s board of governors held on Tuesday at the PM Office. Chaired by the PM, the moot skipped the entire agenda placed before it for discussion which included approvals to financial and administrative decisions taken by the authority since it got autonomous status some five years ago.
The decision to form a committee to review Nacta’s role and functions – although clearly described in the Nacta Act 2013 – came following an initial briefing over the working and performance of the authority given by Mehar Khaliq Dad Lak, Nacta’s newly-appointed national coordinator.
A federal minister who attended the meeting said Lak in his briefing criticised his predecessors and the past government for their failure to yield the desired results. Taking clue from Lak’s briefing, PM Khan announced reviewing the Nacta’s mandate.
PM Imran to review implementation of 100-day plan during Lahore visit today
“New ground realities call for revisiting the role of the organisation in order to make it a truly proactive and sophisticated organisation with a well-defined mandate,” Khan said, according to a statement issued by the PM Office.
The meeting decided to constitute a committee for the purpose that would submit its recommendations to the premier in a week’s time. However, no one has been appointed as head of the committee. According to sources in the interior ministry, Minister of State for Interior Shaharyar Afridi is most likely to be given the task.
The statement says that the PM deplored the fact that not even a single meeting of the Nacta board of governors could be convened since its inception. The PM pointed out that the neglect of the past government resulted in lack of focus on improving functioning of an important organisation.
Created in 2009, Nacta was granted administrative and financial autonomy in 2013. The body is answerable to its board of governors headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The board of governors is supposed to provide strategic vision and policy oversight to Nacta.
Pakistan will not tolerate any act of hostility: PM Imran
However, since 2013 none of the former PMs, including Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, convened a single meeting of the board of governors.
The meeting also reviewed in detail the progress on implementation status of 20-point National Action Plan drafted after the December 2014 Army Public School attack in Peshawar which left at least 140 dead, mostly children. The plan envisaged wide-ranging measures to pursue the war on terror.
The PM said Pakistan had come a long way in its fight against the terrorism and extremism. “In this struggle, we have offered the highest sacrifices of the lives of thousands of our civilians and the security personnel,” he said.
Lauding services and contributions of the armed forces, intelligence agencies, police and other law enforcement and security agencies, the prime minister observed that improved security situation was a result of the combined efforts of all stakeholders.
The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Finance Minister Asad Umar, Law Minister Farogh Naseem, the chief ministers of all four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir PM, State Minister Shaharyar Afridi, the Inter-Services Intelligence chief and the secretary interior among others.