Pak govt.'s new national security doctrine to focus on 'internal organised terrorism'

The Nawaz Sharif government has reportedly refreshed its national security policy with major changes in order to address the growing threat of terrorism growing especially within the state's borders.

According to The Nation, the Pakistan government is in the process of having a revitalised National Counter Terrorism Agency headed preferably by a former general, a separate specialised counter-terrorism force and separately a national security council-like decision making body.

Political and bureaucratic sources said that the elements of the national counter-terrorism policy would be complete 'in weeks' and focus will be on the core element of internal organized terrorism, whose starting point will be a small unit in Islamabad.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan complained that generally high-level orders do not even trickle down at the operational level and admitted that there is a near-complete 'famine of good officers' who would implement the orders.

Nisar Ali Khan further expressed concern on the state of affairs and said that the level of apathy in the administrative cadres is appalling, and the police is a 'sitting duck'.

The report added that the formation of the apex body is not final yet but senior political sources have said that it would include members of 'all those institutions that deal directly with external and internal threats' and will be chaired by the prime minister.