THIS is with reference to the article ‘Revamping Nacta’ (Jan 14). There is every reason to revamp and re-energise the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), giving it the lead role in our effort to control the genie of terrorism.

Unfortunately, we happen to be a short-sighted nation of even more short-sighted leaders. Since the end of the Afghan jihad in the late 1980s, we could not realise what could be the repercussions of getting involved in that conflict.

Likewise, after 9/11, we could not sustain pressure from the United States and had to become its partners in its so-called ‘war on terror’ to fight against our own trained jihadis; this time labelling them as ‘terrorists’. This resulted in colossal damage to us in terms of lives, infrastructure and economy.

Unfortunately, we could not learn a lesson and the situation is the same after a lapse of almost half a century. There is no doubt that we are just about managing our day-to-day situation, but there is also no doubt that we are unable to strategise our response to the root cause of the problem.

Today, we are not able to differentiate between government policies and state priorities. The government policies are fluctuating from time to time owing to political expediencies. This happens at the expense of state priorities, and this is the root cause of all of our issues and miseries.

Also, the responsibility rests on the shoulders of all the state institutions concerned. We always use incorrect methods to relieve pain without realising that the disease is aggravating and becoming incurable. Due to ineptness of institutions, we could not strategise and introduce rational measures to root out this menace. Instead, we have wasted precious time, and are standing at the crossroad as was the case decades ago.

The only way forward is to draw a line between state narrative and government priorities; state mantra must be followed without any hindrance by any institution irrespective of change in governments. Nacta should be given the leading role with complete authority to reorganise all counter-terrorism depart- ments (CTDs) across the country and other law enforcement agencies for better results against terrorism along with input from think tanks and support of provincial governments.

Last but certainly not least, each and every pressure group and those who are involved in clear exploitation in the name of religion must be marginalised and targeted to promote the state narrative.

Akhtar Lalayka
Lahore

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2023