The federal government has decided in principle to issue a working paper before the All Parties Conference (APC) expected to be called after the Eid in order to devise a strategy for holding meaningful consultations over the grave challenges being faced by the country. According to reports, the fresh spate of terror attacks has troubled the newly elected PML-N government and it wants to devise a national policy to counter terrorism as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has tasked Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to contact various political parties for devising a national policy on countering terrorism and necessary legislation, if needed. Chaudhry Nisar has started his consultative meetings and held his first meeting with the Jamaat-i-Islami chief Munawwar Hasan to devise a plan for meaningful talks with the Taliban. Several political parties have asked the government to provide them the working paper ahead of the APC in order to make the consultations meaningful. The government has accepted this demand of the political parties.
The government intends to hold a closed-door meeting immediately after the Eid to make a comprehensive plan to counter terror. The interior minister will hold further meetings with different political parties in the coming days. Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the military leadership has sent its recommendations for the new national security policy to the government. In its recommendations, the military leadership has urged the need for making the new national security policy broad based. It has been suggested that short and long term planning should be done for implementation of this policy and no important aspect should be left out. Sources said one of the main reasons behind delay in formation of the national security policy was that all the stakeholders are still not unanimous on the line of action. Sources said the government has been asked to take some difficult and hard decisions for implementation of the security policy.