Islamabad (Web Desk): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday, ruling out any large-scale military operation, said that Azm-e-Istehkam was a multi-domain, multi-agency and whole of system national vision aimed at decisively rooting out the nebulous and shadowy presence of remnants of terrorists, and violent extremism.
The prime minister, chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet, took the members into confidence about the prevailing misunderstanding and speculations about the Azm-e-Istehkam, saying that instead of any large-scale operation, the already ongoing intelligence based kinetic operations would be energised.
The clarification comes after a statement of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday that Azm-e-Istehkam is aimed at reinvigorating and re-energising the ongoing implementation of revised National Action Plan (NAP), which was initiated after the national consensus across the political spectrum.
“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 energize already in place intelligence based kinetic operations so 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.
Earlier today, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the government would develop a consensus on the new anti-terrorism operation “Azm-e-Istehkam” to eliminate militants from the country, assuring the opposition that its reservations over the matter would be addressed.
“Legal and constitutional process would be adopted to allay the reservations of all political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Awami National Party (ANP), he said, adding that parties are taking such type of stand only to capture vote bank, but their stand should be for the state only, and not for votes.
Militants are being backed by the people abroad who want Pakistan to become “no go area”.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the defence minister said that operation Azam-e-Istehkam was a continuation of the NAP, which had no political objectives, it was not correct to compare it with past operations, adding that actions would be taken based on classified information.
“Consensus among all institutions and political forces was essential for the success of operation, if terrorism was not controlled, it could affect the entire country,” Khawaja Asif said.
The minister called on politicians, the media, judiciary and armed forces to support the operation.
Khawaja Asif said the government did not want to achieve any “political objectives” through the operation. Rather, he said it wanted to combat the surge in militancy in the country and eliminate it for good.
“Opposition parties and the government’s allies will be given a suitable amount of time to debate it and their questions and reservations will be answered”, he added.
The defence minister said the operation would go through its process before it was enforced.
Khawaja Asif said that Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Rah-e-Nijat were also aimed to eliminate militants.
“However, the current situation is quite different as no area is under complete control of any terrorist organization now. Last operation disturbed the populations to migrate but this time civil society will not be affected,” the defence minister said.