There is much left to see what Sharif govt has close to its chest regarding undertakings given to Obama Administration
RAWALPINDI: The release of the Amnesty International report calling the US drone campaign not only illegal and illegitimate, but also calling some of the killings carried out as unlawful, “which could even amount to war crimes” at a time when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his vow to raise the issue in his meeting with US President Barack Obama “is timely”, as Aizaz Chaudhry, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, termed it.
Though political commentators in Pakistan were not very optimistic as to whether Prime Minister Sharif would be able to convince the Obama Administration on the American policy on drones, they did believe that he had with him solid arguments with concrete evidence. Already, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN’s special representative, and international law experts at The Hague, have called the carrying out of drone attacks an unlawful act that challenges the sovereignty of a country. Keeping in view the US’s Syrian experience, the government shutdown at home and the economic circumstances, there is hope for the drone campaign ending. However, there is much left to see as to what the Sharif government has close to its chest regarding undertakings given to the Obama Administration. The times to come will determine whether Prime Minister Sharif was able to cash in on the situation near the time of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan or did he surrender in order to obtain political gains.
Alya Alvi
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
