Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Sub-Committee on Interior on Tuesday held a meeting to examine security deployment and risk assessment following constitution of Individual Security Threat Assessment Committee (ISTAC) by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).

Reportedly, the deputy inspector general (DIG) security informed the committee that ISTAC, headed by DIG security, is comprised of senior superintendent of police (SSP) operations, senior superintendent of police (SSP) security, additional inspector general (AIG) special branch, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director, Intelligence Bureau (IB) director and National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) director at the federal level.

The committee was constituted by the verbal approval of the Interior Secretary of Pakistan while it was notified by Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Islamabad. Following its terms of references (TORs), the report was submitted to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, who approved the mechanism adopted for working of the committee.

Meanwhile, the senator Javed Abbasi presided over the meeting of sub-committee with senator Muhammad Ateeq Sheikh, Joint Secretary Interior Alam Zeb Khan, Joint Secretary Interior Salman Qayum Khan, NACTA Director Operations Obaid Farooq Malik, Rawalpindi regional police officer (RPO) Fayyaz Ahmed, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) DIG Security Waqar Chauhan, ICT SSP operations Najeeb-ur-Rehman, AIG special branch Liaquat Niazi, Karachi SSP security Hassan Sardar Niazi.

The committee observed that security can be availed either through approval of ministry of interior and Cabinet Division or following orders of the court of law.

Except of the stated criteria, nobody else would be authorised to define criteria for entitlement of security.

ISTAC considers matters of security deployment on threat analysis, importance of personality and whether security is needed for any service to state or as an outcome of a personal affair.

Moreover, the committee also takes information from the intelligence agencies, other official sources and reviews applications received from certain individuals.

Later, the committee appreciated the Islamabad Police for development an effective mechanism to counter threats after risk assessment.

Importantly, the committee sought the officials to submit a detailed list of people who possess security vehicles.

SSP Niazi informed the committee that Sindh had benefitted the most following the implementation of security policy and more than 1,000 security personnel and 50 vehicles were returned to the police department.

The next meeting of the committee would acquire details from the police departments of all four provinces.

Published in Daily Times, July 4^th 2018.