NSC resolves to prepare strategy against Trump's new policy

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the country’s top security body, National Security Committee (NSC), on Wednesday resolved to form sub-committee in order to chalk out a counter policy against United States (US) President Donald Trump’s allegations of harbouring terrorists on Pakistani soul new Afghan policy.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired the NSC meeting in which top civil and military leadership gathered in the federal capital.

According to informed sources, the sub-committee will garner recommendations from the senior executives in different departments and present them before the committee in the next meeting.

The recommendations will be prepared from September 5 to September 7 in the light of ambassadors’ conference.

Three heads of Pakistan Armed Forces alongside the federal ministers were attending the meeting. This was the second NSC meeting within a week.

Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Hayat, Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, National Security Advisor retired Lt. General Nasser Khan Janjua, senior civil and military officials attended the meeting.

READ ALSO: Pakistan rejects ‘disappointing’ Trump criticism over alleged terror support

Earlier on August 24, National Security Committee had outrightly rejected the specific allegations and insinuation made by the United States President Donald Trump against Pakistan.

The meeting of National Security Committee was held in Islamabad on Thursday (last week) with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the chair to discuss the Trump Administration’s South Asia Strategy.

The committee observed that to scapegoat Pakistan will not help in stabilizing Afghanistan. In fact, being its immediate neighbor, Pakistan has an abiding interest in peace and stability in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan has to manage the blow-back of a protracted conflict in Afghanistan that resulted in deluge of refugees, flow of drugs and arms and more recently in the shape of terrorist safe havens in eastern Afghanistan from where anti-Pakistan terrorist groups continue to operate and launch attacks inside Pakistan,” the committee observed.

The fact remains that the complex issues and internal dynamics inside Afghanistan pose a grave challenge not only to Pakistan but to the broader region and the international community.

While noting the US commitment to continue to shoulder the burden of Afghanistan and reverse the expanding ungoverned spaces in the country, the National Security Committee observed that Pakistan has consistently supported all international efforts for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan and has also committed more than a billion US dollars for infrastructure and social development in that country.