ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army’s Corps Commanders are meeting on Friday to discuss internal security of the country with particular reference to halting of its surgical strikes against Taliban hideouts in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, credible sources told Dawn.com on Thursday.
They said that Army Chief General Raheel Sharif would take the commanders into confidence about the decisions taken by the country’s civil-military leadership earlier this week at the Prime Minister House.
According to an ISPR press release however, Friday’s meeting is a “routine monthly Corps Commanders Conference.”
“A routine monthly Corps Commanders Conference will be held at General Headquarters here on Friday,” said the military presser issued in Rawalpindi.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif will chair the conference, it added without giving any further details of the conference.
The all important Corps Commanders meeting is being called at a time when the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to continue with the peace process it started with Pakistani Taliban militants last month.
Earlier today, the government decided to form a new ‘powerful’ committee to mediate peace talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), DawnNews quoted sources as saying.
Sources added that the committee, which is expected to be formed in the next two days, will include representatives of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the Army, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other stakeholders. The committee will also receive decision-making powers, sources said.
On Tuesday, the government decided to resume peace dialogue with the outlawed group which was suspended last month after the TTP Mohmand claimed to have killed 23 detained Frontier Corps personnel.
The two committees had met twice prior to the suspension of the dialogue process.
The process appeared to gain new life over the weekend when the Pakistani Taliban declared a one-month ceasefire and the government responded by saying it would halt air strikes against militant hideouts in the tribal areas.
Sources told Dawn.com that situation in North Waziristan, with particular reference to key targets achieved in the recent air strikes, is also likely to be reviewed in the meeting.
Top level Pak-US military dialogue held in the US capital Washington last week would also come under discussion by the military commanders.