NIOC for addressing structural loopholes to overcome organised crimes

Islamabad : Pakistan needs to address the structural loopholes in its governance system to overcome organized crimes at the national and translational levels.

This was the focus of a discussion held Saturday during the 4th Advisory Board Meeting of the National Initiative Against Organized Crimes (NIOC), an independent platform formed by experienced professionals from law enforcement, academia, civil society and media to combat organized crimes in Pakistan.

NIOC Pakistan, which is a part of the global initiative against transnational crime that is supported by the Resilience Fund floated by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Geneva, aims to support eradication of transnational organized crime in Pakistan through generating a critical mass of research-based instruments, building community resilience, and influencing public policy discourses. The initiative primarily addresses the four focus areas of organized crimes in Pakistan: terror financing, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and cyber crimes.

The NIOC’s governing structure consist of a Directorate headed by Former Secretary of the Ministry of Narcotics Control and Member Executive Committee of Interpol Tariq Khosa, Director of Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PISP) Amir Rana, and PSP Muhammad Ali Nekokara. The Advisory Board comprises leading professionals including Former Coordinator NACTA and DG FIA Tariq Parvez as President of the Board, and Former IGP of KP Fiaz Khan Toru, journalist Zahid Hussain, communications expert Fasi Zaka, and Chairman Citizen Police Liaison Committee, Karachi, Zubair Habib as its members. NIOC Pakistan is housed within the PIPS—a research and advocacy think tank in Islamabad.

Since its inception in November 2019, NIOC has held three Advisory Board meetings and two stakeholder consultations with experts in law enforcement, policy, and other public service backgrounds. The initiative has started working on Analysis Papers series on Transnational Organized Crimes in its focus areas in which a detailed analysis paper has already been furnished on the state of drug trafficking in Pakistan.

In addition to that, NIOC will issue Policy Briefs on transnational organized crime, hold series of stakeholders’ consultations, come up with national strategies on combatting transnational organized crime, and develop National Organized Crime Index. The NIOC Directorate also issues monthly newsletters that highlight its activities during the month. Currently it is planning to conduct a two-day international conference on Organized Crime in Islamabad on March 21-22, 2020, that will critically unpack the state of organized crimes in Pakistan and find a policy informed way forward to combat them.