ISLAMABAD (Dateline News) – A federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday gave approval to Operation Azm-e-Istehkam and other related decisions taken at the Apex Committee formed under the revived National Action Plan (NAP), sources say.
Shehbaz said it would be an intelligence-based exercise and didn’t involve any hardships to general public, as he discussed the rumours circulating regarding the planned anti-terrorism operation.
The development comes as Defence Minister Khawaja Asif earlier in the day explained the reasons and nature of the latest plan to root out terrorism from Pakistan at a press conference in Lahore.He said the operation had been envisaged to arrest the rise in terrorism activities in recent months and mentioned that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur did not raise any objection to the proposed operation at the Apex Committee meeting.Noting that the operation is a national security need and not a political move, Khawaja Asif said there should be not only a complete consensus but also a unified action on the part of national institutions. There shouldn’t be a scenario where the terrorists [and their facilitators] get relief from courts, he warned. Earlier on Monday, a statement issued by the Prime Minister Office read that Azm-e-Istehkam was aimed at reinvigorating and re-energising the ongoing implementation of revised NAP, which was initiated after the national consensus across the political spectrum. he government recently announced a new vision for long-term stability called Azm-e-Istehkam. However, some people are misunderstanding it and comparing it to previous kinetic operations like Zarb-e-Azab and Rah-e-Najaat, it says. The previous kinetic operations were conducted to physically dislodge terrorists from their known locations which had become no-go areas and compromised the writ of the state. These operations required mass displacement of the local population and systematic clearance of affected areas.However, Operation Azm-e-Istehkam will include political, diplomatic, legal and information prongs apart from already continuing operations by all law-enforcement agencies.There are no such no-go areas in the country since the ability of terrorist entities to carry out large scale organised operations inside Pakistan was decisively degraded by earlier kinetic operations. Therefore, no large-scale military operation is being contemplated where displacement of population will be required.“Azm-e-Istehkam is a multi-domain, multi-agency, whole of the system national vision for enduring stability in Pakistan,” the statement said, adding “Azm-e-Istehkam is meant to energise already in place intelligence-based kinetic operations so as to decisively root out the nebulous and shadowy presence of remnants of terrorists, their facilitation due to crime terror nexus, and rooting out violent extremism in the country to ensure an overall secure environment in the country for its economic development and prosperity.”This should address all the misunderstandings as well as settle unnecessary debate on the subject,” the statement added.
