Hangu drone attack: US envoy should have been expelled, says Haq

K-P finance minister says MPAs will protest in front of the UN office.

ISLAMABAD:

Ready to take their government’s anti-drone campaign to parliament house and United Nations’ office, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Minister Sirajul Haq has said the federal government should have expelled US envoy after recent drone strike in Hangu.

“Expelling the US envoy would have demonstrated to the world the seriousness of our concerns over the drone attacks … but the federal government lost the opportunity,” he said talking the media on Tuesday.

Haq demanded the federal government to summon the National Assembly session to discuss and revisit the country’s policy on drones.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised to the people that his government would do away with the policies of Musharraf and Zardari, but nothing has changed, said Haq.

“If the federal government fails to take effective measures to stop drone attacks, members of our provincial assembly would hold protests sit-in before the parliament and the UN office in Islamabad,” said the finance minister.



Haq said his party, Jamaate-e-Islami, has drafted a detailed letter on drone attacks and it would soon be dispatched to the premier.

Drone attacks were unacceptable as they killed innocent people in K-P and tribal areas. “It seems that the federal government was deliberately sitting idle over deaths of our people,” said the finance minister. He said the prime minister’s silence over Hangu drone attack was destructive.

He suggested the premier should again call a conference of all political parties if he could not take a decision on drone strikes alone. “The parties would help him get to a decision,” said Haq, suggesting talks always help develop consensus.

He told the journalists that the K-P government’s step to block Nato supply was not an emotional decision.

The supplies were blocked only after due deliberations in the provincial assembly which mutually passed a resolution demanding to put pressure on the US to stop drone attacks. The government has also instructed the IG Police of K-P to register an FIR on Hangu drone strike against the US and the CIA.

Foreign assistance

Answering questions if his government was not taking money from the US in aid; Haq said any projects on health and education funded by USAID, EU or DFID in the province were initiated during the last government.

“However, if anyone thinks that they could get a certificate to kill our people with drones against the funds they might be giving us, was mistaken,” he said.

Meanwhile, at a separate occasion in Peshawar, Sirajul Haq was the chief guest of the ceremony to mark the K-P government’s launch of an 80 million Euro worth of European Union assisted community development programme for the militancy and terrorism hit six districts of Malakand Division. The target districts included Malakand, Swat, Shangla, Dir Lower, Dir Upper and Chitral.

Haq, according to state media, termed the programme an initiative for development and appreciated the European Union and their taxpayers for contributing to it.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.