ISLAMABAD:
The Director General of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Aftab Sultan, who
was to retire on reaching the age of superannuation on Wednesday, was
asked by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to continue till the ‘reforms’
being introduced in the spy agency were implemented.
“Sultan is likely to serve for another year. He also had the option of getting three-year posts of the government,” a senior official told The News.He said that the extension was given as the officer had been working to the satisfaction of the prime minister. The IB’s main job is to assist the law enforcement agencies in counter-terrorism efforts.
The official said the IB was specifically contributing a lot in Karachi and the interior of Sindh in catching criminals and terrorists.The IB recently got a huge amount of funds from the government to replace its outdated equipment and gadgets. The surveillance tools of the IB became obsolete and outmoded long ago as they had not been upgraded after 1999, the official said.
He said that neither Pervez Musharraf nor the subsequent governments paid any attention to the poor state of the IB, which had affected its performance.The second major handicap the IB faced was the serious deficiency of manpower. To overcome it, the ban on recruitments in the IB was lifted by the prime minister some time back, and resultantly recruitments were made.
The official said the police could not get the requisite assistance unless the IB was sufficiently equipped with modern gadgetry and manpower.The IB played a key role in tracking down the attackers who struck the Sindh High Court judge Justice Maqbool Baqar and wounded him grievously. Besides, the agency is doing a comprehensive job in the anti-terror war.
At one time, the counter-terrorism duty was taken back from the IB but it was assigned to it again. Like most prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif is relying too much on the IB. While civilian rulers generally want to strengthen the IB, military dictators ignore it totally and pay more attention to the army or army-led spy agencies.
“Sultan is likely to serve for another year. He also had the option of getting three-year posts of the government,” a senior official told The News.He said that the extension was given as the officer had been working to the satisfaction of the prime minister. The IB’s main job is to assist the law enforcement agencies in counter-terrorism efforts.
The official said the IB was specifically contributing a lot in Karachi and the interior of Sindh in catching criminals and terrorists.The IB recently got a huge amount of funds from the government to replace its outdated equipment and gadgets. The surveillance tools of the IB became obsolete and outmoded long ago as they had not been upgraded after 1999, the official said.
He said that neither Pervez Musharraf nor the subsequent governments paid any attention to the poor state of the IB, which had affected its performance.The second major handicap the IB faced was the serious deficiency of manpower. To overcome it, the ban on recruitments in the IB was lifted by the prime minister some time back, and resultantly recruitments were made.
The official said the police could not get the requisite assistance unless the IB was sufficiently equipped with modern gadgetry and manpower.The IB played a key role in tracking down the attackers who struck the Sindh High Court judge Justice Maqbool Baqar and wounded him grievously. Besides, the agency is doing a comprehensive job in the anti-terror war.
At one time, the counter-terrorism duty was taken back from the IB but it was assigned to it again. Like most prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif is relying too much on the IB. While civilian rulers generally want to strengthen the IB, military dictators ignore it totally and pay more attention to the army or army-led spy agencies.
No comments:
Post a Comment