LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says bold decisions by national leaders against terrorism will result in elimination of this menace from the country.

He said terrorists and extremists would be given a crushing defeat with the force of national unity and solidarity.

Mr Sharif said this to a delegation of office-bearers and workers of the PML-N on Thursday, says a handout.

He said the whole nation was united in the war against terrorism and that the implementation of the decisions taken with mutual consultation and consensus would yield excellent results.

He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan would be steered out of problems, including terrorism, and put on the road to progress and development as well as transformed in accordance with the vision of the Quaid and Iqbal.

The chief minister said Pakistan was passing through a critical phase of its history and terrorism had caused a huge loss to the country. He said that 40,000 Pakistanis had lost their lives in the war against terrorism while national economy, trade, exports and business activities were also being affected.

He said no leniency would be shown to militants and their facilitators and terrorism would be rooted out from the country with the force of unityand consensus.

Mr Sharif said a consensus on national action plan against terrorism was a historic event and political, religious and military leaders had become united to eradicate this scourge.

He said the time had come to hold accountable such elements who had shed the blood of Pakistanis. He said that every Pakistani was grieved at the tragic incident in Peshawar as the militants had attacked the future of the country.

He said the massacre of innocent children and their teachers in the Army Public School of Peshawar was the worst act of terrorIsm in the world. He said the elements involved in this brutal incident deserved deterrent punishment. The chief minister added exemplary unity of the nation against terrorists and their patrons was a proof of the fact that time had come for rooting out this menace from the country and to make Pakistan a haven of peace.

He said though the murder of innocent children had grieved the whole nation but the decision of the national leadership to pay back the enemy in the same coin was commendable. He said the blood of martyrs would not go waste and those who had killed innocent Pakistanis would meet their logical end. He said that the war against terrorism was aimed at the survival of the future generations and stability of the country and victory will be achieved in this war at any cost.