Following the announcement of the National Action Plan (NAP) after the heinous attack on the Army Public School (APS) in 2014, the federal government had expressed its resolve for the formation of a proposed joint intelligence directorate to improve coordination among all intelligence agencies, civil and military, to curb terrorism in the country.
But despite the passage of four years, it’s still unclear when the directorate will be functional.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Times, an official of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) said that threats of terrorists attack were still there given the recent attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi.
He said that there was a dire need to improve coordination among all intelligence agencies to counter terrorist attack. “Every intelligence agency is working on its own. They all should join hand to form a joint intelligence directorate to counter terrorist attacks,” he said. Another official of the department said that a sum of Rs 109.42 million were allocated in the budget 2016-17 to combat the menace in the country, which indicated that the long-awaited NACTA proposal of launching a joint intelligence directorate might be established soon.
He added that the military had also supported the establishment of joint directorate and also nominated a brigadier and almost 50 officers for the purpose. He said that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and provincial police intelligence cover, special branches, had also forwarded nominations for joint directorate the formation of which was still facing several constraints.
Mohammad Aamir Rana, a security analyst and head of the Pakistan Institute of Peace studies (PIPS) told Daily Times that the joint intelligence directorate could be the platform where all intelligence agencies would come under an umbrella to effectively counter and eliminate terrorism from Pakistan.
When asked about hurdles in the formation of the directorate, he ruled out the issue of funds paucity and said that if formed, “the joint intelligence directorate would perform under civilian control and that might not bode well for the establishment”.
“Both civil and military establishment should trust each other to successfully defeat terrorism,” Rana added.
Published in Daily Times, December 16th2018.
