MINUTES OF NIOC’S 36th ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
The 36th Advisory Board Meeting of National Initiative against Organized Crime (NIOC) was held virtually on Friday 28 October at 3 pm. The following AB Members participated: Samina Ahmed and Zubair Habib. The following could not participate: Tariq Parvez: He was in Geneva for a GITOC conference; Zahid Hussain: He was in Washington; Jawaid Akhtar: He was travelling in the UK.
NIOC directorate was represented by the following: Tariq Khosa, Director; Sarmad Saeed, Deputy Director; Hassan Sardar, Manager Administration; Consultants Kaleem Imam, Saroop Ijaz and Nawaz Nadeem.
The following matters came under discussion:
1) CGR-NIOC represented the civil society of Pakistan at the UNTOC Conference of Parties 11th Session in Vienna on 17-21 October 2022. Tariq Khosa read out a statement in COP’s Plenary on UNTOC. Dr Fatima Haider also represented the civil society on behalf of The Grief Directory and came from Belfast, ireland.
2) The Government of Pakistan was represented by Dr Ehsan Sadiq, National Focal Person on UNTOC Review Mechanism and Javed Riaz, former Director FIA, presently DDG NAB Karachi. Pakistan’s Mission in Vienna was represented by Ambassador Aftab Khokher and First Secretary Hasan Abbas. Dr Ehsan Sadiq read out a statement on UNTOC on behalf of the GOP.
3) Pakistan’s Pilot Initiative on UNTOC Review in Islamabad on 15 September 2022 earned a great recognition and a special report by the UNODC Civil Society Unit was circulated among the COP participants.
4) Tariq Khosa, Director CGR-NIOC was also invited as a Resilience Fellow, among 20 representatives selected by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC) to participate actively in UNTOC COP.
5) Follow-up of COP was discussed with UNODC CSU and it was proposed to launch the Asia Pacific Civil Society Engagement Initiative.
6) Canada is thinking of coordinating National Focal Persons and Civil Society partnerships on UNTOC.
7) Issue Papers on Organized Crime Challenges and Human Rights Perspective will soon be issued by NIOC by teams led by Kaleem Imam and Saroop Ijaz respectively.
8) Policy Brief on Police Reforms written by Kaleem Imam was shared with NIOC Advisory Board and will soon be released.
9) A Roundtable on Organized Crime in Pakistan will be held in the last week of November or the first week of December in Islamabad. Sarmad Saeed, Kaleem Imam and Ammar Jaffri will plan and organize the event at the Islamabad Club.
10) CGR-NIOC will plan to organize an international Resilience Dialogue on Organized Crime in collaboration with GITOC in 2023.