ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry on Monday announced the launch of a ‘modern’ website for the long-dysfunctional National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta), but a visit to the website shows that it contains almost none of the vital information that it should contain regarding counterterrorism activities.

The official announcement said the website had been made fully functional on the directives of the interior minister, adding that its purpose was to keep the general public abreast of National Counter-Terrorism Authority activities and provide credible information. A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry described the website as “an important move towards fully activating the authority”.

However, all that the website contains so far is the Nacta Act 2013 under which it was formed, the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) and a vague organogram.

The website contains no data on terror-related incidents and the government’s achievements made in the war on terror.

Even contact details of relevant officers are missing and a layman visiting the website won’t even be able to tell who heads Nacta.

Also missing is the official list of proscribed organizations, the outfits on the government’s watch-list and the drafts of the anti-terror laws currently in force in the country.

PPP’s Farhatullah Babar, whose party enacted the Nacta legislation during its term in office, told Dawn the website must contain information about critical NAP areas, including the names of proscribed organizations as well as those that have resurrected under other names.

In addition, details such as minutes of Nacta board of governors’ meetings and the decisions taken therein; the status of registration of seminaries and measures taken for curriculum reforms should also be included, he said.

“Without this information, it is a grand delusion to claim that the Nacta website has been updated and complete information about NAP is now available through it,” Mr Babar concluded.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2016