Imran approves creation of liaison body for spy agencies
The new body would be led by the director general of ISI, who would function as its chairman; National Counter Terrorism Authority would also be part of the new structure
Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the seting up of the National Intelligence Coordination Commitee (NICC), a report said quoting an unnamed senior security source as saying.
The new body would be led by the director general of the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI), who would function as its chairman.
The intelligence agencies have had at least two rounds of discussions on the issue ater which the proposal was submited to the prime minister for approval.
It is expected that the first meeting of the co-ordination body could be held as early as next week.
“Although there have been discussions about the establishment of the co-ordination forum, its terms of reference and modus operandi would be decided once it formally takes shape,” the source said.
The NICC would serve as a mechanism to co-ordinate the over two dozen intelligence organisations in the country.
National Counter Terrorism Authority would also be part of the new structure.
The move is part of the long-awaited reform of the intelligence apparatus, which aims at clarifying the role of respective agencies, improving their co-ordination, and optimising their capabilities.
One of the lessons learnt by the country during the fight against terrorism was that effective intelligence co-ordination was the weakest link in the entire effort.
It importantly resulted in loss of critical time and in some cases, the agencies even could not piece together the information available to them.
It was, moreover, a major hurdle to collective strategising.
Aleakedversionoftheabbotabadcommission’s report had revealed that the commission, while noting the absence of civil-military intelligence co-ordination mechanism, too had proposed establishment of an agency on the lines of the US Department of Homeland Security to synergise the working of main spy agencies in the country.
Abbotabad Commission was set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden in a US raid on a compound in Abbotabad in 2011.
Although the report has not been officially declassified, it reportedly made 32 wide-ranging recommendations to address the issues identified during the course of its investigation on the basis of testimonies by key civilian and military functionaries; intel co-ordination was one of them.
There have in the past been multiple attempts at developing this co-ordination, but litle progress could be made because of differences over the leadership of the new body, which has now been setled.
On July 26, 2008, the then Peoples Party government even notified the placement of ISI and IB under the “administrative, financial, and operational control” of the Interior Ministry.
But, the decision was reversed within 24 hours due to strong reservations of one of the organisations.
Pakistan’s Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Tuesday that the decision to close down educational institutes was taken due to non-compliance with government-issued coronavirus SOPS.
“The SOPS were not being followed as they should have been,” he said, adding that health department data showed rapid virus transmission in education institutes, Geo TV reported.
Stressing that children’s health cannot be taken lightly, Mahmood said there were around 50 million students across the country i.e. onefourth of our population.
“They can become carriers. So it was necessary to shut down schools.”
Mahmood pointed out that the schools were “shut down” but the students were barred from atending it in person. “We have asked schools to adopt an online mechanism.”
The education minister said those who cannot adopt online schooling should give out homework. “Students or parents can be called once a week to submit the homework.”
He asserted that schools will remain open till Dec.24.
Mahmood said the decision was taken ater a “near consensus” was reached during the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) meeting on Monday.