Pak to establish a watchdog to curb terrorism

Islamabad, Jan 3: Worldwide pressure on Pakistan to counter terrorism operating in its soil, Pakistan has decided to establish a watchdog, National Counter-terrorism Authority (NCA).

NCA is the brainchild of interior ministry adviser Rehman Malik. The intelligence services was till now handling the counter terrorism tasks.

Tariq Pervez, who has just retired as the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), could head the new body, the News daily reported on Friday.

"Pervez has been assigned the job of preparing the concept, structure and mandate of the NCA so that it could serve the purpose for which it was being established," the newspaper said, quoting an official. “The primary objective of the NCA would be maximum coordination among different tools and agencies of the government engaged in counter-terrorism."

"Their workload increased manifold after Pakistan"s participation in the anti-terror war in the wake of the 9/11 attacks," the News noted.

At the same time, "lack of coordination among different official organs working in the field of counter-terrorism had affected the efforts in this direction", the newspaper said.

"Most civilian governments have been critical of the absence of due coordination among the intelligence agencies and other state organisations, and have been calling for an effective counter-terrorism mechanism," it newspaper added.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)