Islamabad: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday called for “strong, hard decisions” to rid Pakistan of terrorism as he opened a conference of political and military leadership.
“History and the nation will not forgive us if we fail to eliminate the scourge of terrorism,” the prime minister said after a meeting convened by him to approve a counterterror national action plan.
Chief of Army General Raheel Sharif and head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-General Rizwan Akhtar joined political parties at the conference held a week after the massacre of more than 150 people by Taliban assailants at an army-run public shool in Peshawar.
Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf who called off the party’s antigovernment protests after the December 16 school carnage, was also among the participants.
Prime Minister Sharif, hailing the political and national consensus on fighting terrorism, said that the country was passing through an extraordinary situation which requires “extraordinay steps.”
Pointing out that the barbaric Peshawar incident was unprecedented in world history, he said Pakistan has paid a heavy price both in terms of human losses and loss to the economy in the war on terror.
“We must take strong, hard decisions without any hesitation or procrastination. The nation will not be satisfied with a feeble, lame response,” he said, adding that people across the country “expect us to make the right decisions.”
The prime minister said that the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb military operation — launched in tribal areas launched in June — was successfully going on.
“There is a dire need to expand it to the entire country against elements who want to destabilise and destroy Pakistan,” he said.
