ISLAMABAD: In a significant development for Pakistan’s counter-terrorism framework, a key official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Major General Faisal Naseer, has been appointed national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta).
According to a notification issued by the establishment division on Friday, Maj Gen Naseer’s, HI(M), T. Bt & Bar, appointment was made with the approval of the federal government.
He will serve as national coordinator, Nacta, under Section 9(1) of the Nacta Act, 2013, on a secondment basis.
The appointment is for a period of three years and is effective immediately, with standard terms and conditions and until further orders.
According to an Establishment Division official, the transfer of a civilian officer is made through deputation, while serving army officers are posted from one organisation to another on a secondment basis.
Commenting on the decision, a senior official within Nacta said there had been a proposal that the counter-terrorism authority should be run by a seasoned army or intelligence official. The move appears to be aimed at bringing greater strategic and operational experience to the authority, which has faced challenges in the past.
The official noted that the authority had previously operated without a proper strategy.
The appointment comes at a critical time for Nacta, which has historically struggled to function effectively as the country’s lead civilian counter-terrorism authority.
Despite being envisioned as a “one-window operation” to coordinate national counter-terrorism efforts, the agency has often been sidelined. In practice, the authority never fully evolved into the command and coordination body envisaged under the law, and has largely remained a policy secretariat with limited capacity to enforce decisions across the country’s sprawling security and law enforcement apparatus.
Initiatives taken over the last decade, including the establishment of the National Intelligence Fusion and Threat Assessment Centre (NIFTAC) under Nacta, have raised concerns about centralisation and the weakening of democratic oversight.
The authority has also seen frequent changes at the top, with more than a dozen National Coordinators since its inception, most of them drawn from the police service.
The appointment of Maj Gen Naseer, therefore, marks a departure from the usual practice. He had been serving as DG (counter-intelligence) since 2022, shortly after his promotion to the rank of major general.
The DG (C) post is often mistakenly described as heading the ISI’s counter-intelligence wing. However, the officer actually heads the agency’s Internal Wing, which deals with domestic security and political matters and, because of the nature of the assignment, frequently engages with the country’s principal power centres.
In the military’s conventional career progression, an officer moved out of an active military assignment is generally considered to have diminished prospects for further promotion, although exceptions have occurred.
Maj Gen Naseer’s transfer to Nacta has, consequently, left many observers surprised.
Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2026
