MINUTES OF NIOC’S 12TH ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
The 12th Advisory Board meeting of National Initiative against Organised Crime (NIOC-Pakistan) was held virtually on 2nd of October 2020 (Friday) at 3 pm.
NIOC Advisory Board President Tariq Parvez and Members including Zahid Hussain, Samina Ahmed, Jawaid Akhtar and Zubair Habib participated. Fasi Zaka could not attend due to some pressing engagement. NIOC Directorate was represented by Director Tariq Khosa as well as Secretary Amir Rana, Deputy Director Ali Nekokara, Manager Administration Hassan Sardar, Consultant/Lead Researcher Kashif Noon and Consultant Strategic Communications Ammar Jaffri.
The meeting, at the outset, approved the minutes of the 11th AB meeting held in September 2020.
Director NIOC presented the agenda of the meeting. He informed the members that Saroop Ijaz, a reputed lawyer had agreed to be part of the NIOC team as a legal expert. The AB members were very pleased to know about this development and welcomed Saroop Ijaz’s inclusion in NIOC team of professionals.
Director Khosa placed the proposal draft of ‘CE Project’ to be submitted to the British High Commission on 05 October. After a useful discussion and suggestions, it was recommended that Saroop Ijaz, Amir Rana and Ali Nekokara will review the draft and give their feedback over the weekend and after final scrutiny by Samina Ahmed, the Director will disseminate the proposal to the AB members and also submit the same on 05 October to BHC.
Director NIOC informed the members about a request received from GI-TOC for assistance in a research project about the impact of the pandemic on organized crime, particularly in large cities like Karachi. Director requested Secretary NIOC Amir Rana to facilitate GI-TOC analyst Antonio Samaois based in London. NIOC Lead Researcher Kashif Noon will also assist in this global body’s research project.
OC National Strategy’s next draft will be submitted by NIOC Lead Researcher Kashif Noon in the second week of October.
NIOC and FIA will conduct a joint webinar on “Human Smuggling” as a result of a suggestion put forth by Director NIOC and accepted by the DG FIA. Consultants NIOC Kashif Noon and Ammar Jaffri had a productive meeting with senior officers of the FIA. Kashif will prepare a Concept Paper and send it to FIA through Director NIOC.
Kashif Noon is still working on developing Case Study on Uzair Baloch, a mafia don of Karachi, that reveals the nexus between crime and politics. He will complete the draft during the last week of October 2020.
Director NIOC informed the AB members about the decision made to get registered with SECP for administrative convenience and fulfillment of tax formalities. So far, NIOC has used the platform of PIPS for a contract with GI Resilience Fund since November 2019. NIOC AB gave a go ahead.
NIOC will devote the last quarter of 2020 to come up with a National OC Strategy, series of reports and webinars on OC-related mandates.