Govt to hold APC on Operation Azm-e-Istehkam

ISLAMABAD: The federal government decided to convene the All Parties Conference (APC) on the operation “Azm-e-Istehkam” operation, ARY News reported citing sources.

The schedule for the APC will be finalised after the return of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who was attending the SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, to Pakistan.

The sources said that the APC is aimed at developing consensus on the operation “Azm-e-Istehkam”. The federal government wants to take all political parties before launching the operation.

The sources privy to the development said that the APC is likely to be held in the last week of July.

Earlier, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif ruled out any large-scale military operation under the vision Azm-e-Istehkam, saying that ongoing Intelligence-Based Operations (IBOs) will be intensified.

Speaking at the federal cabinet meeting called on to take the members into confidence about the prevailing ‘misunderstanding and speculations’ about the Azm-e-Istehkam, the prime minister said that instead of any large-scale operation, the already ongoing intelligence-based kinetic operations would be energised.

PM Shehbaz said that the Azm-e-Istehkam is a multi-domain and whole-of-system national vision aimed at decisively rooting out the nebulous and shadowy presence of remnants of terrorists, and violent extremism.

“A large-scale armed operation would require displacement and the initiation of such an operation under Vision Azm-i-Istehkam is merely a misunderstanding, ”he added.