ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has termed as “nonsensical and farcical” the contents of a Reuters report about the proceedings and content of the recently held security meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Raheel Sharif.
In a statement issued here today, he said this is not the first time that this news agency has come up with whimsical and distorted reports about civil-military relations.
Clarifying the situation, the minister said the meeting was held in a highly congenial and positive atmosphere in which wide ranging issues pertaining to national security, including the situation on our borders, was discussed.
“No decision for a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan was taken. There was no decision to call off the dialogue process, nor was any such demand made from either side as reported by the news agency, he added.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the current state of air strikes and limited military action is in continuation of the already taken decision that any act of violence or terrorism against civilian or military targets will meet a calibrated and measured response.
The minister also clarified that no decision has been taken to hand over the security of Islamabad and other major cities to the army nor is Nacta involved in this whole matter in any manner as has been reported in a section of press. What is being misconceived and misinterpreted is an effort by the government to strengthen the capacity of the police and other civilian law enforcing agencies through the support, input and coordination with the armed forces, he added.
He said this is in no way a recent decision, and the whole process is being fine-tuned for quite some time. Since this entire exercise is still under consideration and discussion, it is too early to pass judgments as a press report has done, as to what form and ultimate formulation this coordination will take.
Military sources in Rawalpindi, commenting on the news story by Reuters, said that the aerial strikes on Wednesday in North Waziristan Agency, in which 60 terrorists were killed, were carried out after approval of the political government, in response to terrorists acts of the last few weeks in Fata, KP and Karachi in which several civilian and military personnel embraced shahadat. When The News asked Reuters for a response to the statement by the Interior Minister and military sources, a Reuters reporter said they will do a new story on the subject on Sunday and respond to all the points.
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