JID establishment ready for PM’s approval

ISLAMABAD: The government has finally decided in principle to establish a Joint Intelligence Directorate (JID) to ensure coordination for anti-terrorism operations after a series of unending discussions, repeated objections and lack of funds in the last seven months, sources told The News here on Saturday.
A senior official of the Interior Ministry who was not authorised to talk to the media confided to The News that the Interior Ministry and the Finance Division have finally succeeded in resolving the issue of provision of funds for the establishment of the much awaited JID.
“The efforts were underway to remove bottlenecks for establishing the JID after announcement of the National Action Plan in December 2015 but the direct intervention of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif worked wonders and the Finance Division has shown its willingness to immediately release funds for this project,” he said.
He said the prime minister would also formally approve the summary of establishing the JID in the next few days after which the Finance Division would release initial funds of Rs100 million for the project.
He said two letters were sent to the federal government in March and June this year to provide funds for the establishment of the JID but each time various technical objections were raised that halted the process of release of funds.
The official said the high ups of the Interior Ministry and the Finance Division have held detailed discussion in the last few days after which it has been decided that Rs 100 million would be immediately released to pave the way for establishing the JID.
He said: “More funds will also be made available for the JID that would help ensure complete coordination and dissemination of real-time information among all 24 intelligence agencies operating in the country.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar after holding charge of his office had also announced in 2013 that the JID comprising officials from all the intelligence agencies would be established to improve coordination among state agencies as part of the government’s efforts to end terrorism in the country.
The official said a large amount of data is generated every day and is filtered and developed into leads but there is no one in the prime minister’s secretariat to deal with all the reports coming in from various sources.
He said there would now be a mechanism and all the intelligence outfits would share real-time data and produce leads that would help the government functionaries to take immediate decisions to thwart terrorism and other internal threats to the country. “The JID would help combine the efforts of the intelligence agencies and enable them to offer solutions and work on breaking new grounds in combating terrorism,” he said.