Army chief stresses unity to safeguard Pakistan; says no movement greater than national security

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir, while addressing a high-level in-camera meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) on Tuesday, vowed to uproot terrorism.

The Army chief said, “Today is a message that we will not only defeat them [terrorists] but also their facilitators.”

Emphasising the adoption of a unified narrative to safeguard Pakistan, he stressed rising above political and personal interests. 

Declaring the fight against terrorism a battle for the nation's survival and the future of generations, the army chief said, “All elements of national power must operate in unison to achieve lasting stability.”

General Munir stated that no agenda, movement, or individual is greater than national security, adding, “If this country exists, so do we; therefore, nothing is more important to us than its security.”

The Army chief, while blaming the "soft state” for the loss of innocent lives, inquired for how long they [armed forces] would fill the “gaps of governance” with martyrs’ blood. “We need better governance [...] we should make Pakistan a hard state,” he said.

As per the media report, at the conclusion of the crucial meeting, upon the request of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, the Army Chief led a prayer.

The in-camera session occurred in Islamabad on Tuesday amid a sharp uptick in terrorist activities in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, including the major terror attack at Jaffar Express last week carried out by the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants.

The high-level meeting was attended by Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, COAS Munir, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) Lieutenant General Asim Malik, chief ministers of all four provinces, including Ali Amin Gandapur, and other top officials.

However, several key figures, including Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members, skipped the high-level huddle.

According to the declaration issued at the conclusion of the crucial session, the meeting stressed the need for consensus and unified political commitment to combat terrorism with full force.

“The committee emphasised strategic and unified political commitment to counter the terror threat with the full might of the state,” added the statement.