True but we both know that not all terrorists are equal in Pakistan and depending on the interests of the stakeholders at any given time, several terrorist groups can be in the good books of one or more stakeholders while others are not. PML-N's own links with terrorist organizations are no secret, nor is the fact that they themselves are a product of the same fascist dictatorship that is responsible for the existence of these terrorist groups in the first place. Shehbaz and, to a lesser extent, Nawaz were in full appeasement mode towards the TTP for the better part of the late 2000s and This was evident by the lack of attacks in their home turf compared to the early 2000s when Islamabad, Pindi and Lahore used to bear the brunt of TTP's violence. Their links with ASWJ are also undeniable but then ASWJ is completely kosher in our army's books and has seat sharing agreements with both PPP(in Karachi) and PTI(Kashmir) too. PML-N were also the ones, along with PTI, who were against Zarb e Azb till the last moment and wanted more talks with the Taliban so I am under no illusion that they have somehow miraculously reformed and are committed to eradicating extremism. I understand that if they're doing so, there's something in it for them. This is simply a case of, like I said earlier, when they're right, they're right.
The issue here concerns JeM, an organization unlike the TTP or ASWJ in that it attacks outside our borders and has created problems for Pakistan with the international community. This particular organization is on good terms with the army but, for reasons that are obvious, they were becoming a bit of a liability for the government due to the India angle so after Pathankot, the government's hand was forced and they started an operation against them on their own because the army wouldn't. Such sudden change in position isn't unusual here e.g. the army took out Malik Ishaq and his sons despite their organization being on very good terms with the army because Malik and his men were about to pledge allegiance to IS. While the operation against JeM in South Punjab was underway, Army, who are on good terms with JeM, intervened and took over the operation after which it effectively stopped. All of this was reported well before the story in Dawn was published so at the very least, it wasn't a complete fabrication since the existence of tensions between the army and the government over JeM were already established facts. This leaves the question of whether or not there was a confrontation between Shehbaz and DG ISI. On that we can only speculate but it makes more sense that it did than the other way round. First, we both know what the consequences of getting into a game of one-upmanship with the army are and it's suicidal unless you're standing on very firm ground. Second, the same question was raised in subsequent days openly in parliament by both government and opposition lawmakers. Third, as soon as the news leaked, the army immediately started looking for the source of the leak instead of going for the journalist who wrote the story as they usually do. In the past, they have murdered journalists for less so this pinpoint focus on who leaked the news instead of shooting the messenger as is their modus operandi suggests that there is truth to the events described in the article and they were simply trying to go after the person responsible for humiliating them.
