Pakistani Cabinet approves new anti-terrorism campaign

The federal government of Pakistan on Tuesday approved the new national anti-terrorism campaign named Azm-e-Istehqam, Geo News TV channel reports. 

“As part of the campaign, intelligence only operations will be carried out against terrorists to completely eliminate them and eradicate extremism in Pakistan. The people of the country will not suffer from them,” Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said at a cabinet meeting. 

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif assured that the government will completely allay the concerns of opposition parties regarding Azm-e-Istehqam, which have demanded the creation of a special parliamentary committee with the participation of all party factions to look into all aspects of this strategy. “We will reach a consensus with them on this issue. Whatever the concerns of the opposition parties and their allies, they will receive comprehensive explanations for them. The government does not pursue any political goals in carrying out a new campaign against terrorism,” the head of the defense department told reporters.

On June 24, Sharif's Secretariat announced that, unlike all the active anti-terrorist operations carried out in 2014 and 2017, Azm-e-Istehqam does not involve a large-scale army action, as well as mass displacement of residents to ensure the ousting of extremists from Pakistani provinces.

On June 22, the Central Committee for the Implementation of the National Anti-Terrorism Action Plan approved the Azm-e-Istehqam strategy for ensuring national security, which provides for expanding the fight against terrorism both within the country and against the external threat from Afghanistan. The strategy includes political and diplomatic efforts in this area. This is Pakistan's response to the rise in terrorist attacks in the country, which have increased by 83% since the beginning of 2024.

As noted by local media, the Pakistani authorities decided to hold Azm-e-Istehqam immediately after the Chinese leadership named security as the main problem threatening the implementation of a key bilateral cooperation project to create the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor last week.