LAHORE, Jun 24 (APP): Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar on Thursday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan himself was leading National Intelligence Coordination Committee (NICC), set up to strengthen coordination among all the intelligence agencies besides optimizing their capacities.
Addressing a ceremony held to launch the reports on “Defining terrorism in Pakistan and strengthening governance in Pakistan” at a local hotel, he said the government did not want to impose any kind of censorship on media, however the media had to decide whether it focused on social issues or political issues during prime times.
The Adviser said that it was needed to bring improvement in criminal procedure code for implementing the law, adding that efforts were being made to bring reforms in criminal justice system as the procedural laws needed to be amended.
Explaining the procedural law, he said that until the complete implementation of rules and process on procedural laws, no significant change could be brought in timely dispensing the justice and concluding cases.
Shahzad Akbar said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was striving hard to invest in justice process as it was needed to pay attention and provide resources for training of prosecutors, judges and other stakeholders, adding that substantial laws besides procedural laws both be amended to provide justice to the people. He said that such reforms would help in recording the statements of accused in the police stations, eliminating the power abuse and changing the police culture.
To a question about terror financing, he said that after the country’s inclusion in Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, a lot of efforts were being made by the government to take action against the terror financing as strict mechanism had been imposed to check the circulation of money particularly the “Hundi” system through intelligence, adding, the previous government had not paid any attention to control money laundering.
The Adviser said that cyber crime cell of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was working as per its best capacity but it had to face challenges of lack of human resources as there were only 400 officials dealing with 100,000 pending applications in the cell so the agency had advertized about 1,200 new vacancies to overcome the challenge.
He said that 70 percent of cases reported in FIA cyber crime cell should be resolved at the local level by the police so an amendment was also being introduced after which such cases would be referred to the police.
To another query, Shahzad Akbar said that Nawaz Sharif’s appeal had been rejected by Islamabad High Court while his property had also been confiscated, adding that the court had also ordered that Nawaz Sharif’s right to appeal had been lost as he was a court absconder now Nawaz Sharif had to appear before the court pertaining to his pending cases.
He said the federal government had also conveyed to the British government that Nawaz Sharif was a court absconder so he should be deported while Nawaz Sharif had applied for extension in his visit visa on which the British government had to make a decision as per its immigration rules. Whatever the British government decided about Nawaz Sharif’s visa extension application, judicial appeal could be made against it, he maintained.
To a question about PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, Shahzad Akbar said that there was no life threat to Maryam Nawaz in Pakistan but she should inform the government if she was facing any sort of life threats.
