Combating terror: Law draft ready to provide cover for Counter Terrorism Force

Interviews of 292 applicants for posts in the nucleus staff are being conducted.

LAHORE:

The government is set to introduce the Counter Terrorism Agency Bill to provide legal cover to the proposed Counter Terrorism Force (CTF).

The new law will allow for the establishment of a new Counter Terrorism Department that will be financially and administratively attached to the Home Department, an official close to the development told The Express Tribune.

He said a draft for the new law was ready. It was now up to the government to decide whether to promulgate an ordinance or bring it on the provincial Assembly floor for discussion after approval from the provincial cabinet, he said.

He said that the Counter Terrorism Department was meant to be a vibrant force with adequate capacity for intelligence gathering, targeted operations, detention- investigations and analyses. The resources had not been available to any department in the past, he said.

Last year in December, the Home Department had advertised for 11 posts of the ‘nucleus’ staff and as many as 470 retired military officers applied. The department shortlisted 292 of them for interviews.



The interviews are being given currently. A seven-member committee headed by the Punjab chief secretary has been conducting the interviews, he said. The posts include training school principal (brigadier), operations director (colonel), additional intelligence director (lt-col), additional special operations director (lt-col), technical deputy director (lt-col), operations deputy director (major), and four regional directors (lt-colonels).

After the interviews, the government will contact the selected candidates’ parent departments [ISI, IB, Army] for references.

The new 4,500-strong force would be headed by a director general from the Police Service of Pakistan cadre. 1,000 of them will be trained at the Elite Police School for a year.

The force will establish field units at the district level headed by an assistant/deputy director, the regional headquarters will be headed by an additional director and the provincial headquarters by a DG in BS-20 or 21.

The PSP officers association had initially protested against the decision to place the force under the home secretary. They wanted the force to be headed by the inspector general police.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2014.