Civilian, military leadership vows to root out terrorism

Operation Zarb-e-Azb to achieve its targets by year end

ISLAMABAD: The civil and military leadership on Friday expressed its firm resolve to root out terrorism from the country as the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb against terrorists was paying dividends after significant gains and would be wrapped up by the end of the year on achieving its targets.

The civil and military leadership expressed satisfaction at the achievements made under the operation. A high-echelon meeting held here at the PM House on Friday chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took stock of the overall internal and external security situation. The meeting was also attended by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif.

The meeting that lasted more than 100 minutes reviewed the prevailing system in the tribal areas, pace of settlement of temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) and governance in the tribal areas in the wake of the operation launched in June 2014. The meeting had significance in the backdrop of departure of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf abroad in the wee hours of the day after removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL) but sources present in the meeting told The News that the departure didn’t come up even as reference since it was an agenda-specific meeting.

Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar Malik, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Secretary to the Prime Minister (SPM) Fawad Hasan Fawad also attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the progress of the ongoing military operation. It was noted with satisfaction that the operation had made significant gains. The participants reaffirmed to root out the scourge of terrorism and extremism from the country.

The sources pointed out when the military operation was concluded, the administration would be converted into civil mode and till then opportunities for enhancing employments in the area would be increased. The methods to ensure sustainable stability in the region were also deliberated upon by the participants of the meeting. The leadership condemned the attack on a bus which killed 15 and injured several others.

While it was noted that the Operation Zarb-e-Azb had made significant gains, the participants reaffirmed to eradicate terrorism and extremism from the country. It has been learnt that another high-level meeting would take place next week to discuss the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Washington where he would attend the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) convened by US President Barrack Obama. Some sensitive discussions are bound to take place during the summit. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will have separate meetings with US President, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some other leaders.

The sources pointed out that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had a brief chat with the prime minister separately where they were believed to have discussed the impact of departure of Pervez Musharraf. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had played an important role in finalising the issue.