Pak govt, army on same page for tackling terrorists: Sharif

Making it clear that attacks on army and public will not be tolerated, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said the government and the military were on the same page on the issue of tackling terrorists in Karachi or the restive tribal areas.
The remarks came in the backdrop of a recent limited operation launched by the army in North Waziristan.
"We will adopt coordinated strategy to root out the menace of terrorism," Sharif said while chairing a meeting in the Prime Minister's House to review anti-terror laws.
The civil administration and the military are "on the same page to tackle terrorists in Karachi, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas", he was quoted as saying in a statement.

There is "no space for enemy aliens to attack innocent civilians and armed forces", he said. They must be "prosecuted with effectiveness", he added.
Sharif directed officials to expedite the process of framing and promulgating anti-terror laws.

The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Ashfaq Nadeem, the heads of the Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence and the Interior and Law Secretaries.
Over 50 people were killed in a recent operation carried out by the army in North Waziristan Agency, a haven for the dreaded Haqqani network and al-Qaeda linked groups.

The action was launched after a suicide attack on security personnel on December 18.
Though the army claimed all the dead were terrorists, many of them foreign fighters, media reports said civilians were also killed.
North Waziristan is out of bounds for journalists and independent confirmation of the deaths was not possible.
Speculation that the army might launch a major offensive in the tribal areas has been building as the government's attempts to engage the banned Pakistani Taliban in talks have floundered in recent months.