Top military commanders met on Monday to chalk out a comprehensive defence strategy to safeguard the country from internal as well as external threats. Chief of the Army Staff General Parvez Ashfaq Kayani chaired the Formation Commanders Conference (FCC) held at the General Headquarters (GHQ). The meeting will end in five days.
Sources said that new Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Raja Zaheerul Islam also attended the meeting in his new capacity for the first time and briefed the participants about the overall national security situation.
The military commanders also reviewed ongoing efforts to recover the remains of 135 soldiers and civilians who were buried alive under a massive avalanche at the Siachen Glacier. General Kayani, who visited the disaster site on Sunday, briefed the meeting about rescue efforts being made despite harsh-weather conditions at the 6,000-metre-high remote peak.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Principal Staff Officers, Corps Commanders and General Officers Commanding (GOCs). Different corps headquarters and formation commanders presented their reports with specific focus on threats to the country. The army chief was reported to have taken military commanders into confidence about his recent meetings with General John Allen and General Martin Dempsey in Afghanistan.
In the concluding session, the sources said, promotions from lieutenant-colonels to colonels and colonels to brigadiers would be approved. This meeting is being held after Pakistan developed serious differences with the US following incidents of unprovoked Nato-US forces' attacks, including the one on the Salala check post, in which two dozen Pakistani soldiers lost their lives.