Nacta remains a non-starter

ISLAMABAD: National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), which was envisioned to bring all security agencies under one umbrella, has proved a nonstarter for all practical purposes despite release of funds close to Rs1 billion by Finance Division in the current fiscal year.

In the wake of terrorist attacks at Bacha Khan University Charsada on Wednesday morning, the effectiveness of Nacta under National Action Plan (NAP) to ensure internal security again came into limelight, exposing the capacity and capability at institutional level to curb and crush the militants involved in horrifying incident of killing innocent students both male and female.

First of all, this scribe contacted to one top wizard of Finance Division for inquiring about allocation of funds for Nacta, he replied that the Finance Ministry provided about one billion rupees out of which Rs800 million was released a few days ago.

Asked about total funding requirement of Nacta, the top official replied that “for ongoing financial year all requirements were met as mutually agreed”. But the Nacta cannot be yet termed as a good start because even its official website will read “updated website under construction”.

An official who remained involved in framing the internal security, told The News that total funding requirement of Nacta stood at around Rs28 billion. First of all, he said, this assignment should be tasked to professional people who knew ins and outs of internal security and all possible threats emanating from extremism.

“The piecemeal approach is not going to work for countering terrorism so there is need to involve professionals at all levels to achieve the desired results,” said the official. Asked about budgetary release of Rs1 billion, he said that it could provide salaries and perks of employees being enjoyed by any budding organisation.