Army chief holds rare same-day talks with President Alvi, PM Imran

ISLAMABAD: Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa on Monday met President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran.

Although the army chief’s meeting with the high minister took place on the sidelines of the apex commission on Afghanistan’s session, it’s rare for an army chief to meet both heads of the state and the government on the same day.

The brevity of a statement on the Khan-Bajwa meeting issued by the PM Office added to the curiosity of political spectators about what could have been conceivably bandied between them.

All that the PMO had to say about the meeting was “ Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan moment. Professional matters pertaining to Pakistan Army were bandied during the meeting”.

Press statements on the meetings between the high minister and army chief have been generally pro forma since their public disagreement over the appointment of the Inter-Services Intelligence director-general. There have been just two intimately bared meetings between the two since Oct 26, the day Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum was notified as to the new director-general, though they’ve been together at forums attended by other functionaries as well.

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The administration’s statement gave a little further sapience into the meeting between President Alvi and Gen Bajwa, suggesting that they had a focused discussion on the recent terrorism incidents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Gen Bajwa “ briefed the President about the professional preparedness and measures being taken by the security forces against the terrorist rudiments,” the administration stated, adding that the army principal reiterated the resoluteness “ to exclude zealots and culprits from the country”.

President Alvi, meanwhile, paid rich homage to the security forces to help martyred in the recent operations against zealots in Balochistan and recently merged sections of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Apex commission on Afghanistan
PM Khan, while chairing the apex commission meeting, expressed the stopgap that Afghan scholars studying in Pakistani universities would help in the development of Afghanistan, besides strengthening people-to-people connections between the neighboring countries. He also ordered the durability of literacy and provision of all necessary coffers for the purpose.

Regarding bilateral trade, the premier said the government accorded top precedence to business-to-business connections and communication systems and would give full facilitation.

He called for fast-tracking the aid systems and commitments blazoned for Afghan people and said the hospitals erected in Afghanistan by the Pakistan government would be supported in addition to expanding road and rail connectivity.