Agencies team up against terrorists

ISLAMABAD: Against their past inter-service jealousies and rivalries, coordination between intelligence agencies to counter terrorism has started improving.
Although, the feared blow-black of Zarb-e-Azb has started hitting Pakistan somewhat belatedly than what was earlier expected, the encouraging aspect is the emergence of greater coordination and better working relationship between the intelligence and security agencies to counter terrorism.
Sources said that like never before, officials of different intelligence agencies, both civil and military, in their field operations coordinate and exchange information to fight terrorism.“After the Peshawar school attack and following the formation of the National Action Plan,
things between security agencies have changed phenomenally,” one of these sources said, adding that earlier they used to work in an environment of rivalry but now they are cooperative and focused against terrorism.
A senior official of the Punjab Police Special Branch said that in the past, senior military intelligence officials rarely used to attend meetings called by civilian authorities. But now they do come when invited, the source said.
It is said that the newly-conceived concept of “apex committees” comprising civil and military leadership at the provincial capitals has also helped create better working relationship between the civilian and military agencies.
At the highest levels, the spymasters do meet in special meetings convened and chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif whether in Islamabad, Karachi or in other cities. However, regular and routine meetings of key security authorities including spymasters to exchange notes and devise strategies at the highest levels are lacking.
Under the Nacta Act, there is a mechanism for such regular meetings to be chaired by the prime minister and the interior minister but this Act has been ignored in the past. The National Action Plan has vowed to reactivate Nacta, which would be an important body for systematic coordination and strategic planning to fight terrorism.
Nacta is a newly-established organisation, which will focus on preparing national threat assessment reports on extremism, terrorism, and insurgency and will help the government formulate the National Action Plan for counter-terrorism.
Nacta, the document said, will primarily focus on research, data collection and analysis of terrorism-related issues in addition to serving as a liaison with international organisations focusing on counter-terrorism. The sanctioned strength of Nacta is 203.
It is relevant to mention here that the federal government has 33 organisations constituting the entire national security apparatus with total strength exceeding 600,000, which is more than the standing Army of Pakistan. But because of non-coordination and rivalry factor they could not effectively check terrorism and other mafias hurting Pakistan.
It is believed that the focused approach and well-coordinated operations of these intelligence and security organisations would help break the terrorist networks. For this, Nacta will have to play a major role.