NIOC Pakistan Aims to Bridge the Gap Between Policy and Governance to Combat Organized Crimes in Pakistan
Press Release (Islamabad)
Date: February 08, 2020
Pakistan needs to address the structural loopholes in its governance system to overcome organized crimes on national and translational level. This was focus of discussion held at Islamabad Club at the 4th Advisory Board Meeting of National Initiative Against Organized Crimes (NIOC).
Experienced professionals from law enforcement, academia, journalism, civil society and media have joined together to form an independent platform to combat organized crimes in Pakistan. The National Initiative Against Organized Crimes (NIOC) Pakistan, which is a part of the global initiative against transnational crime that is supported by the Resilience Fund floated by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Geneva, aims to support eradication of transnational organized crime in Pakistan through generating a critical mass of research based instruments, building community resilience, and influencing public policy discourses. The initiative primarily addresses the four focus areas of organized crimes in Pakistan: Terror Financing, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking, and Cyber Crimes.
The NIOC’s governing structure consist of a Directorate which is headed by Mr Tariq Khosa, Former Secretary Ministry of Narcotics Control and Member Executive Committee of Interpol, Mr. Amir Rana, Director Pak Institute for Peace Studies, as its Secretary, and Mr. Muhammad Ali Nekokara, PSP, as its Deputy Director. The Advisory Board of NIOC comprises of leading professionals including Mr. Tariq Parvez, Former Coordinator NACTA and DG FIA, as the President of the Board, Mr. Fiaz Khan Toru, Former IGP of KP, Mr. Zahid Hussain, Senior Journalist, Mr. Fasi Zaka, Communications Expert, and Mr. Zubair Habib, Chairman Citizen Police Liaison Committee, Karachi, as its members. The NIOC Pakistan is housed within the Pak Institute for Peace Studies – a leading research and advocacy think tank of Pakistan – in Islamabad. The initiative frequently engages in consultation with NACTA, FIA, ANF, NACTD, and Police Bureaus of the federal and provincial governments.
Since its inception in November 2019, the NIOC has held three Advisory Board meetings and two stakeholder consultations with experts in law enforcement, policy, and other public service backgrounds. The initiative has started working on Analysis Papers series on Transnational Organized Crimes in its focus areas in which a detailed analysis paper has already been furnished on the state of Drug Trafficking in Pakistan. In addition to that, the NIOC will issue Policy Briefs on transnational organized crime, hold series of stakeholders’ consultations, come up with national strategies on combatting transnational organized crime, and develop National Organized Crime Index. The NIOC Directorate also issues monthly Newsletters that highlights its activities during the month. Currently it is planning to conduct a 2-days international conference on Organized Crime in Islamabad on March 21-22, 2020 that will critically unpack the state of organized crimes in Pakistan and find a policy informed way forward to combat them.