ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the session that was attended by Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa, National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yousaf, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and senior military and civil officers.

Political and military leadership on Monday decided that the government would pursue a ‘comprehensive strategy’ to stamp out religious extremism and vigilantism.

The decision was taken at a meeting convened to review the security situation in the country.

Discussions at the meeting were dominated by the recent incident in Sialkot where a mob had lynched a Sri Lankan national Diyawadanage Priyantha Kumara over allegations of blasphemy.

The meeting, the PM Office said, resolved to bring the perpetrators to justice.

It decided that strict punishments would be awarded to the perpetrators and a comprehensive strategy for curbing Sialkot-like incidents would be implemented.

“Individuals and mobs cannot be allowed to take the law into their hands and such incidents cannot be tolerated,” the participants of the meeting asserted.

The PMO statement also praised the bravery and courage of Malik Adnan, who resisted the mob in an attempt to save Mr Kumara. The prime minister a day earlier had announced that Mr Adnan would be awarded Tamgha-i-Shujaat for trying his best to protect his colleague from the violent crowd.

The Parliamentary Committee on National Security was, meanwhile, briefed on the broader contours of the national security policy being prepared by the National Security Division.

While briefing the committee, Dr Yousaf said the policy was “designed to leverage the symbiotic relationship between human security, economic security and military security with the prosperity and safety of citizens as its principal focus”.

Economic security, he said, was at the core of the comprehensive security concept being put forward by the new policy.

The NSA gave an overview of efforts put in to prepare the strategy since 2014 when the National Security Division was created. It would be the first national security policy once finalised.

Several rounds of feedback consultations on multiple drafts were held with all state institutions, including provincial government and the governments of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, he said. Over 600 academics, analysts, civil-society members and students across Pakistan, he added, had also been consulted to make the policy process inclusive.

The NSA said the policy was expected to be a dynamic document that would be “reviewed each year” and “on the transition of government” to help keep it abreast with priorities in a fast-changing global environment.

A statement issued by the National Assembly Secretariat said that the participants of the meeting ‘endorsed’ the efforts for the preparation of the policy. However, members belonging to the opposition boycotted the meeting.