Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wants to regulate the military’s role in the policy making process of the country, the media said on Tuesday, quoting leaked documents.
According to the leaked Proposed-Counter-Terrorism-Strategy-Document, the PML-N government in Pakistan wants to establish National Counter Terrorism Force (NCTF) and National Counter Insurgency Force (NCIF) with powers of intelligence and law enforcement, a British-based news website reported.
High-ups in Pakistan’s capital believe that army is on the same page about intelligence sharing and tackling terrorism with the civilian leadership.
Current problems demand close and quick decisions with mutual understanding from political and military leadership, but no mechanism is available to do so, the report said.
“The government in Pakistan believes that the country is facing peculiar circumstances, the elements resorting to insurgency in FATA are also carrying out terrorism in urban centers of Pakistan. They have sympathisers, facilitators, sleeper agents and activists across the country,” it added.
“It seems that many factors will continue to enable terrorist groups to grow and to survive: sectarianism and religious extremism including spillover of violence from Afghanistan, presence of foreign militants and their sympathisers in Pakistan, weak control over mullah, mosque and madrassa, radicalization, economic disparity, weak writ of the government and absence of security policy/counter terrorism strategy,” the document further said.
The Pakistan Army leadership has given assurance to the elected government about developing the system on national level to control the situation, it said.
“To counter terrorism in the country, the army is ready to share the experience and to assist the civilian setup,” said report.
“Surveillance and support network is a need of time to maintain a constant operational surveillance over the wide spectrum of civil society in order to prevent terrorist and extremist networks from developing in Pakistan,” the document stated.