However, the idea of a new military offensive received a cool response from some political parties, including Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
In order to defuse criticism of the new operation and gain wider support, the government has decided to seek confidence from all political parties on the new military strategy and convene an All Parties Conference (APC) on the new operation against terrorists.
During an interaction with media after the hearing in the Al Qadir Trust corruption case at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Khan announced that PTI leaders would attend the meeting as observers.
“This is an issue of national importance and we are at the conference in the interest of the country,” he said.
The government decided to convene the APC to address coalition and opposition concerns over the new operation and to forge a political consensus among the parties on the issue of counter-extremism. The date of the meeting has yet to be announced but it is expected to be held by next week. Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz had approved “Operation Azm-e-Istekam” to eradicate terrorism and extremism in the country after a meeting of a high-level committee on June 22.
The announcement came after a Chinese delegation visited Pakistan to discuss the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) amid a spate of deadly terrorist attacks on Chinese nationals working on infrastructure projects in the country.
