Closing in: PTI to step up anti-drone campaign

Party announces protest rallies in Lahore and Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD:

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 1^st, 2013.