Aerial invasions: K-P passes resolution against drone strikes

K-P Assembly demands that the US hand over drone technology to Pakistan.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a resolution against US drone strikes inside Pakistani territory.

The assembly also demanded that the federal government summon the US ambassador to the Foreign Office and convey its demand of an immediate halt to these strikes, since they were a violation of the country’s sovereignty.

The resolution was moved by Local Government Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour.

The provincial assembly, however, seemed to object to US control over the drone strikes rather than the attacks themselves. The resolution also demanded that Pakistan be provided the drone technology for its own campaigns against terrorism.

Nevertheless, the assembly did argue that the drone strikes were counter-productive in the war against the Taliban since they cause civilian casualties.

“Drone strikes are increasing hatred amongst tribal people and tribesmen were soldiers of Pakistan and all of them were not terrorists,” read the resolution.

The resolution comes at a time of increasing unanimity across the political spectrum with regard to opposition to the US drone programme.

Earlier on Saturday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti also demanded an end to predator strikes. The recent uproar followed the April 13 drone attack in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan that killed at least six militants, a day after a meeting between ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha and CIA Director Leon Panetta.

This attack had broken around a month long lull in drone strikes. Prior to this attack, drone strikes had remained suspended following a US drone attack on a jirga in North Waziristan that killed at least 40 tribesmen, drawing wide-ranging condemnation including a rare one from the Army.

However, security analyst Khadim Hussain said that Pakistan, Afghanistan, NATO and other countries of this region were converging on eliminating of terror networks from the tribal areas and stabilising Afghanistan in the wake of the eventual withdrawal of foreign forces from that country.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th,  2011.