The government has moved to create a more powerful anti-terror body with an expanded, sweeping, mandate to deal with all things terrorism related.
The federal cabinet approved the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Bill 2012 on Wednesday, a draft law which aims to establish a ‘new’ body to coordinate efforts to eliminate terrorism from the country.
Interestingly, however, officials privy to the development claim that the bill is first and foremost likely to act as a legal cover for the already-existing, but near-dormant, body by the same name (Nacta), which was formed through an executive order by the prime minister back in 2008.
The new bill, claimed the officials, will, at the same time, expand the power, mandate and membership of the inactive body – which, most importantly, will now act as a coordination and information-sharing platform between different intelligence agencies, military and civilian, as well as law-enforcement agencies, both at the federal and provincial level. It is expected that it will be chaired by the prime minister himself, and will include the chief ministers of all provinces and representatives of intelligence outfits.
Previously the body was under the interior minister.
The official also said that the body would also deal with all policy and legislative business regarding terrorism and counter-terrorism – including looking at syllabus and textbook issues pertaining to the spread of hate material and propaganda.
The bill was approved after lengthy rounds of consultations between all stakeholders and the government. The bill, which needs to be approved by both houses of parliament and signed by President Asif Ali Zardari, is to be immediately tabled in the National Assembly for further deliberations and proposals from other political forces.
While Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira did not provide details about the bill, he told the media that its main objective was to defeat terrorism. The minister was addressing the media after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
“The federal cabinet today approved the National Counter Terrorism Authority Bill for which efforts had been ongoing for a long time. There was a need for a body to interlink the activities of security agencies,” Kaira said.
The information minister added that there was a need for greater coordination between government institutions fighting terrorism. He said that previous attempts to reform religious seminaries, considered to be the ‘nurseries’ of the Taliban and other extremist organisations, had borne few results.
Kaira said, “The new authorised body will formulate policies that will improve coordination among the federal and provincial governments, and intelligence agencies, as well as carry out research to defeat the terrorist mindset.”
D-8 acknowledgements
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Prime Minister Ashraf congratulated all organisers, including the Foreign Office, for a successful Developing-8 summit in Islamabad.
The premier said the members are of the view that the development and progress of concerned countries are linked to stability and peace in Afghanistan. The member states expressed their confidence in the democratic development of Pakistan and appreciated President Asif Ali Zardari’s initiative for trade‚ banking‚ and currency swapping among D-8 members, he added.
The prime minister also appreciated all those who played an important role in maintaining peace during Muharramul Haram. He paid tribute to the armed forces‚ security agencies‚ police‚ Rangers‚ ulema‚ media and civil society for maintaining unity during Muharram.
New medical university
Kaira informed the media that the cabinet also decided to establish a medical university at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad. He said the university will be named after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and will be a federal chartered university imparting post-graduate medical education.
The cabinet also decided to provide autonomous status to the Climate Change Impact Study Centre, which will include representatives for Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2012.
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This should have been done a long ago to fight the menace of Terrorism in Pakistan. Good decision at last.
what were they doing for all these years when common man suffered every day?? Bunch of corrupt looters in suits, churning new schemes to loot more public money. We dont even have the capability or will to implement what laws exist today, and these fools, together with inputs from establishment plans new junk rules to loot more money. Fix what is existing before creating new rules.
Waking up from deep sleep after 4 years when government is about to finish its term..The next logical step is to move the existing police to in-office duties and deploy the new fresh and better trained force on streets to protect the citizens.
Good. About time a civilian government takes action to reverse the policies that have been placed by Zia's regime resulting in a brainwashed nation.