ISLAMABAD – The civil and military leadership decided on Friday to pace theoperation against terrorists in the country.
They reached a decision during a meeting of the National Security Committee(NSC) which was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir, Chairman Joint Chiefs of StaffCommittee (CJCSC) Gen Sahir Shamshad Miraz, heads of armed forces, federalministers for defence, finance and information and senior militaryleadership attended the meeting.
Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen NadeemAnjum briefed the participants of the meeting about the ongoing operationsagainst terrorism and overall security situation of the country.
Reports said the NSC reiterated that the zero-tolerance policy will beadopted against terrorists for lasting peace in the country.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also briefed the NSC on the economicsituation of the country as Pakistan is scrambling to revive the loanprogramme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The NSC meeting was convened amidst the country’s economic and politicalturmoil, which was compounded by the Supreme Court’s verdict on thePakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) petition. The ruling coalition firmlyopposed the verdict, which they believe is a minority ruling of 3-2 andshould not be implemented.
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The meeting took place a day after the National Assembly passed aresolution rejecting the three-member Supreme Court bench’s “minority”verdict on the Punjab elections and made it binding on PM Shehbaz and hiscabinet not to implement the decision.
The resolution was moved by Balochistan Awami Party lawmaker Khalid Magsiand approved by a majority of lawmakers.
The resolution noted that the National Assembly had previously called onthe Supreme Court to avoid “interfering” in political matters and expressedconcerns over the Supreme Court’s circular setting aside the verdict of athree-member bench on suo motu cases.
It also raised alarms over the formation of a controversial bench and itsdecision to quickly close the case that prompted Justice Qazi Faez Isa tosuspend “suo motu” hearings.
