ISLAMABAD: The Army is all set to have a dominant role in the recruitment of 20,000 police personnel who will help make Karachi more secure.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar talked about decisions taken at a meeting held in Karachi to review the law and order situation of the port city.

Saying that 20,000 fresh recruits would be inducted into the Karachi police, he explained that “the army will assist in [ensuring] merit-based recruitment and training, besides playing a role in equipping them with light arms”. He added that around 2,000 ex-servicemen would also be recruited.

He said the army was already playing a role in building the capacity of police and other law enforcement agencies across the country.

Conceding that there had been no significant progress in blocking terrorists’ financial support, the minister said that the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) would convene a meeting of all stakeholders early next week, or soon after Eid, to explore out-of-the-box solutions.

The other point raised in the meeting was regarding the documentation of Karachi’s population, modelled along the lines of the procedure adopted in the federal capital, with the assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

Another proposal was the preparation of a digitised federal crime record, that would greatly help security and intelligence agencies in effectively managing operations against terrorists, he said, adding that work on this would start soon after Eid.

Highlighting the importance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for Pakistan, he said the possibility of enacting a special law to deal with those who had their own ulterior motives against the project was also discussed.

Referring to joint investigation teams formed to investigate terrorism-related cases, he said a proposal to give them legal cover was also considered, which would be further discussed in the next meeting after seeking legal opinions.

Another proposal that came under discussion was the establishment of a national authority to handle vehicle registration and issue uniform number plates across the country. The revenue from this exercise could be shared with the provinces.

Another decision involved the installation of security cameras at various points in Karachi, in a phased manner, along the pattern of the Safe City Project, initiated in Islamabad.

Nisar observed that while Pakistan was winning the war against terrorism, the country had to win on the psychological front in order to take it to its logical conclusion.

“The fight against terrorism is a success story, but the war continues. The rules of the game are tilted against the government and the security agencies as the enemy is not visible. They are hiding among our population, many of them are educated and it is difficult to identify them,” he remarked. He said the division of powers between the federation and the provinces also sometimes became a hurdle to effective law enforcement.

Claiming that terrorists were fast losing space, he said the killing of Amjad Sabri and the kidnapping of the son of the Sindh High Court (SHC) chief justice (CJ) were a challenge for the security and intelligence agencies.

He said after Orlando shooting, the entire American nation was united in mourning to counter terrorism. The Pakistani nation has to unite in the face of incidents such as the kidnapping of the SHC CJ’s son. He also vowed to trace and punish Sabri’s killers as well as safely recover the chief justice’s son.

Criticising the social media for playing a negative role, he said that each rumour churned out by a section of the online medium somehow became a news story. He implicitly rejected rumours that a former president was involved in the kidnapping of the SHC CJ’s son, saying that one never knows who is spreading rumours on social media, the person behind it could even be a RAW agent or a terrorist.

He also announced that police officials were no longer barred from performing duties with United Nations peacekeeping forces.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016