ISLAMABAD: Interior Minis­ter Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday said that the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) will be restructured on modern lines.

Chairing an important meeting at Nacta headquarters here, Mr Naqvi said that the authority will be on the front foot in the war against terrorism and it will be restructured to achieve this objective.

The national coordinator of Nacta, Rai Tahir, briefed the minister on the authority’s functioning during the meeting.

The minister stressed the need for complete implementation on the National Action Plan (NAP) at all costs and convened a meeting of the coordination committee next week.

A 20-point National Action Plan for countering terrorism and extremism had been chalked out by Nacta in consultation with stakeholders and approved on Dec 24, 2014, by the parliament.

The decision came following a deadly terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar.

The interior minister took the decision to implement NAP in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including an attack on a security checkpoint in the Mir Ali area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district, resulting in the martyrdom of seven soldiers of Pakistan Army.

“The federal government will implement the National Action Plan (NAP) at any cost to counter terrorism,” Mr Naqvi was quoted as saying this in the meeting.

It was decided to summon a meeting of the coordination committee of NAP next week to examine progress on implementation of the plan, which would be chaired by the interior minister himself.

“It is more important for us to take preemptive measures to eliminate terrorists and their facilitators instead of taking action after every incident of terrorism,” the interior minister said.

He summoned a detailed report on the capacity of all provincial counterterrorism departments (CTDs).

The minister said that practical steps were needed to be taken against terrorism. A comprehensive strategy would be formulated to uproot terrorism and extremism, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2024