Amidst criticism over a newly announced counter-terrorism operation without consulting Parliament, the Pakistan government has said that it would not be a kinetic large-scale military campaign, nor would it entail the mass displacement of the people.
‘Operation Azm-i-Istehkam’, announced by the government on Saturday, is the latest in a series of counter-terrorism operations launched by the Pakistan Army since the mid-2000s. The announcement came after the Central Apex Committee of National Action Plan meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The Opposition parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl and Awami National Party have refused to support the new counterterrorism operation. They demanded that Parliament be taken into confidence before any offensive against militancy was launched.
Prime Minister Sharif on Tuesday clarified that the planned counterterrorism campaign ‘Vision Azm-i-Istehkam’ would entail intensifying ongoing intelligence-based operations (IBOs) rather than a “new and organised” military offensive, Dawn newspaper reported. The clarification comes after the PM’s Office (PMO) late Monday night said that ‘Operation Azm-i-Istehkam’ would not be a kinetic large-scale military operation, nor would it entail the mass displacement of the local population.“The prime minister took the cabinet members into confidence regarding the misunderstandings and speculation regarding ‘Vision Azm-i-Istehkam’,” state-run PTV News quoted the PMO as saying during a meeting of the federal cabinet. The statement quoted Sharif as saying that the new operation is an overall national vision of a multifaceted cooperation of various security agencies and the entire state system.
“For this purpose, already ongoing IBOs will be intensified rather than [launching] a new and organised armed operation,” he added.
The PMO said that “previous kinetic operations were conducted to physically dislodge terrorists from their known locations which [became] no-go areas and compromised the writ of the state. These operations required mass displacement of the local population and systematic clearance of affected areas”.
“As there are no such areas in the country anymore and terrorists’ ability to carry out large-scale organised operations inside Pakistan had been “decisively degraded by earlier kinetic operations… no large-scale military operation is being contemplated where displacement of population will be required,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has assured opposition parties that their reservations regarding the newly announced counterterrorism campaign would be addressed.
“We will try to create consensus this time as well. We will address the reservations expressed by the JUI-F, ANP and PTI,” Asif said on Tuesday while addressing a press conference in Lahore.
“There are no political aims of this operation. We only want to challenge and end the rising wave of terrorism ongoing since the past few months,” he asserted.
He urged all government components, the judiciary, security forces, the Parliament and the media to support the operation. “This is a national crisis, which is not just the army’s responsibility but all institutions.”
The decision to launch a new counter-terrorism operation came after a high-ranking Chinese official last week singled out security as the foremost challenge threatening the future of the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
