LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) issued notice to the federal government on a plea regarding taking the issue of US drone strikes to the International Court of Justice. Petitioner Advocate Ilmuddin Ghazi through his counsel AK Dogar, argued that the US drone attacks violated the sovereignty of the country. He said that government was not taking any practical measures despite innocent civilians being killed in the strikes. He requested that cases be registered against US Presidents Barack Obama and George Bush for war crimes.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2011.
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Not only Pakistan could take "the issue of US drone strikes to the International Court of Justice", in the Hague, the Swiss Confederation too. Two Swiss citizens were kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) in July and are kept in captivity somewhere in North or South Waziristan. The last time one heard from them, that they were still alive was from a video-tape of last August. Mr. Saifullah Mahsud, director of the Fata Research in Islamabad was interviewed by the Swiss-German TV. It turned out later that he was misquoted by a Swiss journalist. Mr. Mahsud had never spoken on behalf of the TTP. The demand - a ransom of $3 million should be paid and 100 prisoners be released by the Pakistani authorities in exchange for the two - was just a rumour and had never been confirmed. Nobody knows whether the TTP are still pressing for the release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who is jailed in Texas, in exchange for the hostages. Nobody knows whether the two are still alive, in light of the frequent drone attacks the past two months.