Govt approves Rs20 billion for Operation Azm-e-Istehkam

The federal government has allocated Rs20 billion for Operation Azm-e-Istehkam to eliminate terrorism and extremism in the country.

In the meeting, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) made two decisions. The cabinet approved a recommendation to export 100,000 tonnes of sugar.

In another decision, the committee approved the budget for anti-militant operations after the Central Apex Committee meeting on the National Action Plan (NCA).

The meeting was informed that Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb approved a total of Rs2.23 billion grant for security forces.

Of which, Rs1.95 billion was allocated for the Frontier Corp Balochistan (South) for the security of the Reko Diq project and Rs276.25 million would be shared with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North) for project implementation letters (PILs).

The operation was announced on June 22 and aimed to deploy the country’s full military, diplomatic, legislative and socio-economic resources to decisively defeat terrorism and extremism.

The announcement was made after the consultation with all political parties, including JUI-F and Awami National Party, while Chief Minister KP Ali Amin Gandapur denied any such thing was discussed with him during an apex committee meeting.

Azm-e-Istehkam is the latest series of operations against militants launched by the Pakistan Army since the mid-2000s. 

Previously, General Raheel Sharif launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan in 2014 and General Qamar Javed Bajwa launched Operation Raddul Fasaad in 2017 to eliminate terrorism from the country.

However, the government assured that Operation Azm-e-Istehkam would be different from previously launched operations that prompted authorities to internally displace the people from their residences.