The military on Thursday gave a clear-cut message to all relevant quarters that without bringing the planners, perpetrators, abettors and facilitators of May 9, there will be no stability in the country.
This was noted during a Formation Commanders Conference at the military's nerve centre, the General Headquarters (GHQ).
The military's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), released a statement on Thursday stating that the conference was presided over by Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir and attended by the Corps Commanders, Principal Staff Officers, and all Formation Commanders of the Pakistan Army.
During the conference, the forum noted that the planners, perpetrators, abettors, and facilitators of May 9, 2023, need to be brought to justice for the collective good of the country.
On May 9, 2023, over a dozen civil and military installations were attacked by alleged supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan had been arrested. Among the major installations attacked were the Corps Commander House/ Jinnah House located in Lahore Cantonment, military bases in Mianwali and Sargodha, the GHQ in Rawalpindi and bases in Peshawar, among various other civil and military installations across the country. Monuments paying tribute to martyrs were also destroyed.
On Thursday, the military said, "without swift and transparent dispensation of justice to the culprits and establishing the rule of law, stability in the country will ever remain hostage to the machinations of such elements."
The formation commanders underscored that politically motivated and vested digital terrorism, unleashed by conspirators duly abetted by their foreign cohorts, against state institutions, was clearly meant to try to induce despondency in the Pakistani nation, to sow discord among national institutions, especially the armed forces, and the people of Pakistan by peddling blatant lies, fake news, and propaganda.
The commanders said that the nation was fully aware of their ugly and ulterior motives and that surely "the designs of these nefarious forces would be comprehensively defeated."
Reviewing the internal security situation, especially in Balochistan, the forum underlined the need for socio-economic development in Balochistan to counter externally propagated narratives of exclusion exploited by foreign-sponsored proxies to lead Balochistan's youth away from peace and progress.
Earlier, the conference was briefed on the dynamics of the geo-strategic environment, emerging challenges to national security, and the army's strategy to counter multi-domain threats.
Serious concerns were expressed over the continued cross-border violations from Afghanistan and terrorism being orchestrated using Afghan soil, noting that Pakistan's adversaries were using Afghanistan to target security forces and innocent civilians inside Pakistan.
The conference concluded by affirming its resolve to neutralise all threats to the country's security and stability, with the full backing of the nation.
At the beginning of the conference, Fatiha was offered, and tribute was paid to the sacrifices of Shuhadas (martyrs), including officers and men of the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, and citizens of Pakistan who had laid their lives for the country's safety, security, and sovereignty. In this regard, the forum acknowledged the sacrifices by the people of the Newly Merged Tribal Districts (NMTDs) in the war against terrorism and underscored the importance of uplifting the NMTDs to decisively defeat terrorism.
While reviewing the situation on the eastern border and the latest round of extra-judicial murders in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the forum expressed complete solidarity with the Kashmiri people in their just struggle for the inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions.
The forum expressed concern over the treatment of minorities, especially Muslims in India, and noted the growing fascism being perpetrated to achieve vested political ends.
With Israeli ground forces invading Rafah, the last safehouse for residents of the narrow Gaza Strip in western Palestine, the forum expressed complete solidarity with the people of Palestine and condemned serious human rights violations and war crimes being perpetrated in Gaza.
They supported the decision of the International Court of Justice wherein Israel was ordered to immediately halt operations in Rafah and elsewhere within the Gaza Strip.
The forum resolved to continue to fully support the government's initiatives in various domains for sustainable economic growth and curbing illegal activities, including smuggling, hoarding, electricity theft, implementation of the One Document Regime, dignified repatriation of illegal foreigners, and safeguarding of the national database, etc.
The participants were also briefed on technological innovations by the armed forces to modernise the army and optimise logistical support to field formations in line with the fast-evolving operational environment.