[DAWN] The government has not yet decided to launch a full-scale military offensive in North Wazoo and talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) have not been called off, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Saturday.Talking about the ongoing air strikes against bully boy hideouts in the TTP stronghold, he said this 'limited military action' was in line with the policy that calls for a calibrated and measured response to acts of terror against civilian or military targets.
A senior military official also told Dawn that Wednesday's air strikes, in which the military claimed to have killed around 60 terrorists, were launched with the sanction of the civilian leadership in Islamabad. These strikes, he added, were a reply to terrorist attacks that have rocked Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
(KP), the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
The remarks from both sides seem to dispel an impression that the government and the military were not on the same page about the grinding of the peace processor.
In a statement released on Saturday, the interior minister refuted the content of a news wire report about the proceedings of a recently-held security meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
. The report claimed that the army chief and the prime minister disagreed over the fate of the talks with the outlawed TTP and that the army chief had told the PM that the time for talks was over.
Chaudhry Nisar said the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere and a wide range of issues pertaining to national security, including the security situation on the borders, was discussed. "No decision was taken to launch a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan. There was no decision to call off the dialogue process either, and there was no such demand from either side," he said.
The minister also said that it had not yet been decided whether the army should be called in to take over the security of Islamabad and other major cities, nor was the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) involved in this process.
He said efforts to strengthen the capacity of police and other civilian law-enforcement agencies through the support of the armed forces were being taken, adding that this had been misinterpreted by press reports on the matter.