NACTA to get joint intelligence directorate: report

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) is expected to get a full-fledged joint intelligence directorate (JID) soon.

According to a report in the local media, NACTA’s board of governors, likely to meet on September 25, is expected to take a decision in this regard among other major initiatives, which include an official building for JID. The meeting is reportedly going to be headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In addition to the prime minister, other members of the board of governors include the chief ministers of all provinces, inspectors general of all provinces, all provincial home ministers and home secretaries, and federal interior secretary. Directors-general of all intelligence agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and ISI, are also likely to participate in the meeting.

Moreover, it is learnt that the JID would be headed by a serving brigadier of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and include other high-ranking senior personnel of the Pakistan Army.

Sources shared that the board of governors is also likely to approve the hiring of JID personnel in BPS-1 to BPS-19, adding that the meeting was also likely to approve the hiring of 300 employees in Nacta in the same pay scales, considering the authority is facing an acute staff shortage.

In the past several years, several attempts have been made to form the JID in NACTA. However, most of them have been in vain. Since the formation of NACTA in 2009, no meeting of the board of governors was held because of several reasons, including the issue of formation of the anti-terrorism watchdog’s board of governors.

The main purpose of the JID is to create a joint intelligence-sharing platform, besides increasing intra-agency collaboration for curbing terrorism.