PTI chairman Imran Khan. PHOTO: AFP
Top policymakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday vowed to continue the blockade of Nato supply trucks via Khyber Pakthunkhwa (K-P) as the party readied plans to intensify its anti-drone campaign until a ‘logical conclusion’ is reached.
Condemning the recent drones, the ruling party in the province also demanded that the federal government take immediate steps to join its move to block supplies.
Chaired by party chairman Imran Khan, PTI’s core-committee met in Islamabad where it announced that its representatives in the K-P Assembly, led by Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, will file a petition in parliament on December 5 in a effort to record its protest before the federal government. The party will also hold a large rally in Lahore on December 22 against inflation and the deteriorating economic situation in the country, he said.
“Our core committee has re-endorsed the decision to block Nato supply via K-P. The decision [reflects] the wishes of the people of Pakistan and is in the line with our national dignity as well as the mandate of the APC held in Islamabad,” said PTI central leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
He said that along with pressing the federal government to block the Nato supplies, the party has decided to intensify the anti-drone campaign. He explained that coalition members of the K-P Assembly will record their protest in front of the Parliament House in Islamabad on December 5. “The objective of the petition is to remind the federal government of its responsibility to force the Obama administration to stop lethal drones in Pakistan,” he maintained.
Qureshi also alleged that the PML-N government is trying to distort the image of PTI through state media, by dubbing it a ‘pro-Taliban party’.
“We are not pro-Taliban, but pro-peace and pro-Pakistan,” he maintained. “Our efforts are not for Taliban, but for the peace and stability in Pakistan.”
“The government’s economic policies have totally failed and it follows the IMF’s dictations by burdening everything on the masses,” he said, referring to the December 22 protest scheduled to take place in Lahore. He added that the PM had yet again introduced an economic package in the better interest of corrupt businessmen and tax evaders.
“We have decided to protest against such a flawed economic policy,” Qureshi noted.
According to a press release, PTI chairman Imran Khan alleged that the federal government has failed despite all parliamentary resolutions and APCs to motivate the US to stop drones. He noted that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not raise the drone issue before the US authorities during his visit to Washington.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2013.
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Those who dont want drone attacks to discontinue should then get out of their comfort zones and protest against the Taliban.
@Murali Mahidhara: It is no good idea. It is better to strengthen to Law and judicial system to bring people under Law rather to recourse Technology to kill them without trial.
This all happen because we have inapt leadership and dishonest ruling elite. we should effort rather to go very easy solution.
There is only one way for the Taliban to interpret the call for ending drones and negotiations. They must see their tactics as working and therefore should not change them. Why would they call for an end to their attacks in Pakistan when they can attack and still have politicians like IK demanding an end to drone strikes? What will motivate them to change when going to the bargaining table can only weaken their position.
IK and his cronies are either idiots or Talibs.
A silent majority of Pakistan people like drone attacks. 1. Drones "don't disrupt" daily normal activities of people, their businesses, education, hotels, foreign tourists, hospitals, roads, bridges, Govt. offices, never killed judges, Punjab chief minister,military installation, Friday prayers, "never targeted" children and women, school girls in buses, women's colleges, never targeted transit goods to Afghanistan that earn more or less 5 billion dollars per year for Pakistan, 2. Terrorists target all of the above, and want to take Pakistan into 7th century, with or without the help of politicians. 3. They might succeed, Mullah Omar is lurking.
I red today in British based newspaper that mostly elite are corrupt in Pakistan that is the reason Pakistan is underdeveloped third world.
We have get rid of this corrupt junta too as with as Drone strikes.
Good Luck to Imran Khan. Please continue the blockade supply until USA accepts Pakistan as an Independent country and not as a client state. It is shame to see that Nawaz Sharif got the vote of Pakistanis so that he can look after the interest of the country. What we find, sadly, is that he has a American puppet and ignores the interest of Pakistan