Gains of Karachi operation won’t be allowed to go waste

Civil, military leadership meeting shows concern over clipping of Rangers’ powers

ISLAMABAD: The civil and military leadership on Friday expressed the resolve that the successes achieved in the Karachi operation would not be allowed to go waste as it discussed with concern in a meeting the issue of an extension in the special policing powers for the Rangers and the Sindh Assembly’s resolution that clipped the Rangers’ authority.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired the meeting while the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif was also among those who attended it.

The sources told ‘The News’ that the meeting continued for about three hours and the prime minister had to change his schedule for attending the National Assembly session for which Minister for Interior Ch Nisar Ali Khan had made an announcement. However, the prime minister couldn’t turn up at the Parliament House.

The sources revealed that the huddle took two hours for deliberations on Afghanistan and the recently-concluded Heart of Asia conference which was also attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and 10 foreign ministers of important countries associated with the process of Heart of Asia, Istanbul Initiative. The huddle was also attended by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant to PM (SAPM) on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar Malik, Secretary to the PM Fawad Hasan Fawad and Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Lieutenant General (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua.

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry gave a detailed briefing on the conference that was held under the auspices of the Foreign Office, the sources said. The significant element of the conference was the announcement by India to resume the dialogue with Pakistan.

The official release of Friday referred to internal security and the Afghan situation that came under discussion in the meeting.

The sources said that the leadership had decided in the meeting to step up its efforts for facilitating the resumption of intra-Afghan dialogue as the Afghan government had given a clear hint to becoming a part of the dialogue and assured its support for any move that would be helpful for its talks with the Taliban, the sources added.

It is expected that a high-level delegation from Pakistan would visit Kabul for further talks with the Afghan administration in the light of the Heart of Asia conference and the Friday’s huddle, the sources pointed out.

The political sources are of the view that the civil and military leadership is concerned about the developments taking place in Karachi and a strategy to deal with the situation would be evolved through deliberations subsequently. The leadership is on the same page on the subject and it has reiterated its resolve to take the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb to its logical conclusion and there would be no question of slowing down, including in Karachi, the sources reminded.