ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday chaired a high-level meeting on counter-terrorism which decided to crush rising terrorism in the country with full force.
The meeting reviewed all existing anti-terror laws and decided to bring necessary amendments in order to toughen these laws.
PM's Special Assistant Khawaja Zaheer and Law Secretary Barrister Zafarullah briefed the meeting with regards to the existing anti-terror laws and pending cases before various courts.
The meeting also considered a proposal relating to establishment of special military courts for conducting speedy trials of terrorists.
Examine: Special courts being established for terror trials, says Khawaja Asif
Speaking at the meeting, the premier said one Zarb-i-Azb operation is ongoing in North Waziristan and the other operation would be carried out across the country against terrorists who are hiding in cities and villages.
"There will be a decisive war against terrorists now who were responsible for attacking the Hazara town, Peshawar church and elsewhere," PM Nawaz vowed.
The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, General (retd) Qadir Baloch, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and other officials.
Nawaz directs AG, legal team to ‘pro-actively’ pursue terrorism cases
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt and his legal team on Monday to proactively pursue cases related to terrorism in situations where courts have granted stay orders against executions.
After the premier's directives, the government's legal team would file review petitions against stay orders so trials could be completed at the earliest.
Evidence would be presented before the court of law in cases where proof had been missing. “We are committed to eliminating terrorism at any cost. No mercy would be accorded to those who have killed our youth, citizens and children,” a federal government spokesman said.
Read: 55 convicts to be sent to the gallows in a few days
Moreover, Radio Pakistan has reported that the premier also directed officials to ensure fast-track prosecution of terrorists and vacate stay orders issued against their death sentences.
Earlier on Friday, two former military men were executed in the Faisalabad district jail. Usman, a former soldier of the military's medical corps, was executed in relation to the 2009 attack on the headquarters of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi.
Arshad Mehmood, who was a trooper and also hanged, was among the five convicted men who were handed down death sentence for their role in an Al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempt on the life of former President Pervez Musharraf in late 2003.
Read: LHC suspends conviction of five attackers on Gujrat army camp
The hangings on Friday were the first death sentences carried out after the government ended a six-year moratorium on executions last week, a move that appears to have come in response to the Peshawar tragedy that claimed the lives of over 140 people, most of them children. On Sunday, four more convicts were executed at a district jail in Faisalabad.
