Prime Minister Shehbaz Shairf on Thursday convened a meeting of the National Apex Committee on Friday (today) in Islamabad to discuss the law and order situation in the country.
A well-placed source told The News that the meeting will commence at the Prime Minister’s House at 3 pm.
The apex committee will discuss and formulate a strategy to deal with the terrorism wave in various parts of the country.
PM Shehbaz will chair the huddle which will be participated by the services chiefs including Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir, Director General (DG) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum, director Intelligence Bureau and other intelligence agencies’ heads.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar and Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will also attend the meeting.
The sources also noted that the meeting had conspicuous significance in the wake of the recent visit of defence minister and DG ISI to Kabul.
Such a high-level visit from Islamabad took place after a long pause. It is understood that the activities of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) using Afghan territory which is causing great harm to peace in Pakistan did come for detailed deliberations during the stay of the delegation in Kabul.
The sources also mentioned that Afghanistan’s Taliban administration had assured Pakistan soon after assuming power in the Afghan capital that they would not allow any terror element to use their soil against Pakistan.
The Pakistani delegation briefed Afghan interlocutors about the hideouts of TTP in Afghanistan.
The sources also added that the defence minister would place a report about his Kabul visit and brief the huddle on what transpired in the course of discussions with the Afghan interim government.
The domestic law and order situation would also be discussed in the meeting, the sources said.
It is pertinent to mention that the government had decided to hold an all-parties conference (APC) in the aftermath of the Peshawar Police Lines Mosque attack earlier this month.
In response, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan castigated the idea of calling an APC and turned down an invitation to take part in the crucial moot.
The APC was postponed and couldn’t be rescheduled.
The sources indicated that Imran did not want to be seen siding with any action that could curb the activities of the TTP and for that reason, he opted to stay away from the idea of the APC.
