Islamabad - An official of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA) has to face music at the hands of his subordinates after he refused to sign a paper for withdrawal of his complaint regarding backdated controversial appointments in the authority, it is learnt on Friday.
The state of affairs in the NACTA, established under an executive order in 2009 by the then PPP-led government with the mandate to work as a coordinating body to unify counter terrorism efforts of various civil and military intelligence agencies, is so bad that it has become a safe heaven for the political appointees without having no major project at its credit.
The NACTA, which was established with the authorisation to work as a think tank to conduct research and to propose measures to deal with menace of radicalisation and develop a comprehensive national counter terrorism action plan, is only busy in internal brawls and had no interest to work on counter terrorism.
Another question is that where is National Coordinator NACTA Dr Haider Ali, who holds the highest position in the Authority and neither had made any statement on the incident of a scuffle between a senior and junior officers of the body nor had lodged any separate complaint in this connection.
A source privy to the development said that the thrashing of a senior NACTA official Khush Dil Malik by his subordinates, the other day, was the outcome of his refusal to withdraw a complaint against the senior officials of NACTA to make backdated recruitments in the Authority.
Another irony is that the Islamabad police have failed to lodge any FIR against the accused despite the passage of more than two days. Asjad Mahmood, Sub-Inspector of Margalla Police Station and investigator of the case, said that investigation was underway and no FIR was registered till yet because none of the complainants had produced any medico legal certificate before the police.
He further informed The Nation that both sides, the senior officer and deputy director (admin) were accusing each other of beating and thrashing and no conclusion could be made at the moment.
Interior Minster Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had sought a report from the ICT Police on the incident and the report to his office had already been submitted. Khush Dil Malik and Zeshan Anjum both had lodged separate complaints with Margalla Police Station accusing each other of harassing and beating. The sources said that the NACTA high-ups made recruitments against around 185 posts during the period of the interim government in last April but later the caretaker prime minister declared these recruitments null and void having complaints of non-transparency from certain quarters.
However, the top bosses of the Authority again made these recruitments in back dates because of a ban imposed on the fresh recruitments by the newly elected PML-N government.
Two research officers were also appointed in the Research and Analysis Wing of NACTA that was being run by its Director General (DG) Khush Dil Malik at that time. Upon this, DG objected and on June 26 wrote a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office and Establishment Division stating that the recruitments were made illegal and in a non-transparent manner. This offended the NACTA administration and it also withheld all the supporting staff from the DG. Malik, on June 27, made another complaint in this regard to his bosses.
On July 3, some officials of NACTA, including Deputy Director (Admin) Zeshan Anjum came to the office of Malik, locked the doors inside, brutally beat him and asked him to sign the papers withdrawing these two complaints, sources said. They also asked him to relinquish the charge as Establishment Division had transferred him from the Authority. No senior officer of NACTA could be reached despite repeated attempts.