All Parties Conference on terrorism rescheduled for Feb 9: information minister
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Monday that the government has rescheduled the All Parties Conference (APC) in Islamabad — called to discuss important challenges being faced by Pakistan — for February 9, Thursday.
She did not mention why the meeting originally slated for February 7 was moved.
In a tweet, the information minister said that a joint strategy to combat terrorism and other challenges faced by the government will be discussed in the meeting. The National Action Plan will also be reviewed.
Aurangzeb added that the entire political and national leadership of the country has been invited to the moot.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had decided to convene the multi-party moot last week in a move that was seen as significant development amid rising political temperatures in the country.
The invitation for the meeting was also extended to PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan, which was formally delivered to party leaders Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaiser by former speaker and federal minister, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
However, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that the PTI has not received an official invitation for the conference yet.
The All Party Conference comes as the country is facing an uptick in terrorist activity. On January 30, a suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar Police Lines area claimed the lives of at least 101 people, mostly police officials.
At the same time, the country is also facing trouble on the economic front. Foreign exchange reserves have gone down to $3.09 billion, which analysts say covers less than three weeks of imports.
The country is locked in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release much-needed money under a stalled bailout programme. A successful outcome with the IMF would also help to release money from other platforms that are looking for a greenlight from the lender.