PM chairs meeting to review internal security, National Action Plan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the internal security situation and implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).

The meeting discussed ways to prevent terrorist financing, hate speech and literature. It was also pointed that no progress had been made in Madrassah reforms.

Discussions were held on NACTA being inactive and the need to enhance capacity building of civilian institutions.

Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Prime Minister’s Advisor’s on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatimi, and others attended the meeting.

The meeting comes a day after the military launched a ground offensive against the local and foreign militants in the remote and mountainous Shawal Valley of North Waziristan. The ground operation was launched hours after air strikes in killed 43 suspected militants.

Fighter jets have been pounding militant sanctuaries in Shawal since last Sunday when terrorists killed Punjab Home Minister Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada in a suicide bombing in his native Shadi Khan village of Attock district.

The army has been waging a major offensive to clear militant hideouts in North Waziristan since June last year. Officials say nearly 3,000 militants have been killed since the launch of the latest offensive.