Govt to call APC on Azm-e-Istehkam

Meeting could be called next week after PM’s return from Kazakhstan

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government is mulling over convening an all parties conference (APC) upon the return of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from his foreign visit to take the country’s political leadership into confidence on its Azm-e-Istehkam initiative.

Sources told The Express Tribune on Thursday that the APC could be called sometime next week in which the prime minister, who is currently in Kazakhstan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, would take all the parties into confidence on Azm-e-Istehkam.

On June 22, an Apex Committee of the National Action Plan (NAP) meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and attended by key federal minister and chief ministers approved “Operation Azm-e-Istehkam” to eliminate terrorism and extremism across the country.

However, the next day, the lawmakers from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) declared their opposition to any military operation and demanded that the military leadership take parliament into confidence first. However, the government later clarified that ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’ would not be a kinetic operation.

Later, at a Jirga convened in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) officially opposed Azm-e-Istehkam. Besides, the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl had also opposed the operation. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif assured that the government would redress the concerns of the political parties.

Recently, the coalition parties of the government had agreed to the need for immediately starting the operation against terrorists. However, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had said that the federal government should make all the parties sit at the table for coherent strategy.