VIEW: Yes to NACTA —Gulmina Bilal Ahmad

We need to focus on developing a counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation strategy and the sooner we do it the better. Counter-radicalisation will serve as a preemptive strike on those who are working to challenge the writ of the state

We seemingly have the illusion that we have the luxury of time — our social, political and economic activities all seem to suggest that. Or perhaps I should correct myself. The public is in a state of panic. The elite are not.

Terrorism is not the only challenge that Pakistan is confronted with, but it certainly is the biggest challenge, with human, political and economic implications. As a result of terrorism, 2.3 million Pakistanis were displaced — the largest displacement in the subcontinent since partition. According to a recently published International Monetary Fund (IMF) country report on Poverty Reduction Strategy in Pakistan, we have “incurred a loss of Rs 2.082 trillion in exports, foreign investment, industrial output and tax collection during the last five years due to terrorism. The cost to the national economy, both direct and indirect, was estimated during FY2005 and FY2009.” According to the report, the cost gradually increased from Rs 259.103 billion in FY2005, Rs 300.78 billion in FY2006, Rs 360.9 billion in FY2007, Rs 484.367 billion in FY2008 to Rs 678.8 in FY2009.

Over 156 children and 522 men and women were killed in the 80 suicide attacks and 497 bomb blasts in 2009-10. At least 5,238 persons were killed in 3,836 incidents of violence in FATA in 2009, as compared to 3,067 in 1,154 violent incidents in 2008. It is no wonder, then, that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in between sparring with his Indian counterparts, managed to state that terrorism has cost Pakistan over $ 35 billion.

Given the enormity of the challenge, one would expect that the panic button is pressed and there is almost a mad scramble to develop mechanisms to address this challenge. Madness there is, but, sadly, there seems to be no method to this madness. This week, the chief of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) resigned. Effectively, Pakistan lacks a suitable head that should ideally be focusing on how to counter terrorism. This authority was set up with much fanfare last year. It was designed to act as a research organisation for which the EU had pledged € 15 million, with a draft being framed to provide the authority a legal cover. NACTA, or one should say the idea of NACTA, had also interested other international partners and special security agencies, including Interpol. It was originally envisioned to have three sub-departments: one to counter extremism, to be headed by an educationist or a journalist; second to counter terrorism, to be headed by a police officer; and the third for research and analysis, to be headed by an eminent academician. NACTA was tasked to come up with a functional and viable strategy to counter terrorism.

The idea to set up this authority was the brainchild of the present interior minister and the resigning chief of the authority had been handpicked by the minister, given the his excellent record in the Federal Investigation Agency. The fact that the interior minister did not extend the much-needed cooperation to his own brainchild is perplexing. Incidentally, at the time of establishment of NACTA, the interior minister had confessed that the prime minister wanted significant changes in the working of the interior ministry and that this would be taken as a guideline to counter terrorism. After the Data Darbar suicide blasts, claims of ‘reviving’ NACTA also appeared in the media.

The question that needs to be asked, then, is what happened. Why was NACTA not given the space and the authority to carry out its functions? The terrorists on the other hand are organised and well funded. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, the “price of a suicide bomber is from Rs 0.5 million to Rs 1.5 million, while the family of the bomber gets Rs 0.5 million. A Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) cadre normally receives Rs 6,000-8,000 a month while in training, while their leaders receive between Rs 20,000-30,000 a month.” Security experts also believe that the TTP is now moving towards urban guerilla warfare tactics, given the fact that their hideouts in the tribal areas and Swat, etc, are being smoked out.

It is also disturbing to know that the TTP is now using in its attacks ‘shaped charges’. According to experts, it is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosives’ energy. This was used for this first time in the Data Darbar attack, revealing how desperately dangerous the Taliban have become.

Given the challenge at hand, we cannot afford to shuffle our feet over the issue. Squabbles over who will head NACTA and what role a given ministry will have amounts to wasting time that we do not have. More efforts to seriously counter terrorism and curtail the sources of funding of terrorist organisations have to be undertaken than merely amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 or approving of the Anti-Money Laundering Bill of 2009. We need to focus on developing a counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation strategy and the sooner we do it the better. Counter-radicalisation will serve as a preemptive strike on those who are working to challenge the writ of the state. The extremist elements need to be challenged through civil society debate and if civil society does not step up to counter the extremists, anarchy is unavoidable. This anarchy can only be curbed if concentrated institutionalised efforts, like NACTA, are supported and enhanced.

The writer is an Islamabad based freelance consultant and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com