Major General Faisal Naseer, a senior Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official, has been appointed national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) for three years, placing an experienced army and intelligence officer at the head of Pakistan’s civilian counter-terrorism body.
The Establishment Division said in a notification issued on Friday that the appointment had been approved by the federal government.
Maj Gen Naseer, who holds the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) and Tamgha-i-Basalat and Bar, will assume the position with immediate effect.
He has been appointed under Section 9(1) of the Nacta Act, 2013, in secondment. The term refers to the temporary assignment of a serving officer to another organisation.
The appointment follows an earlier proposal within Nacta to place an army or intelligence officer with substantial experience in charge of the authority.
A senior Nacta official has stated that the move was intended to bring greater strategic and operational expertise to the organisation, which had previously lacked a coherent strategy.
Nacta has struggled for years to fulfil its role as Pakistan’s lead civilian counter-terrorism authority.
It was established as a “one-window operation” to coordinate national counter-terrorism efforts but has not developed into the command and coordination body envisaged under the law, instead largely functioning as a policy secretariat.
The authority has also faced concerns over greater centralisation, including following the establishment of the National Intelligence Fusion and Threat Assessment Centre under its umbrella.
Nacta has had more than a dozen national coordinators since its creation, most of them drawn from the police service.
Maj Gen Naseer’s appointment marks a departure from that pattern. He had been serving as the ISI’s director general (counter-intelligence) since 2022, following his promotion to major general.
The position is formally associated with the agency’s Internal Wing, which deals with domestic security and political matters, rather than being limited to counter-intelligence functions.
