NATO supplies: Come next year, PTI to block Chaman crossing

The sit-in will continue till drone strikes are stopped in Pakistan, says Shireen mazari.

PESHAWAR:

Imran Khan will call for sit-ins to block Nato supply routes in Sindh and Balochistan via the Chaman border next year, said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Central Information Secretary Shireen Mazari. “He is scheduled to be in Karachi in the first week of January and will also be visiting Balochistan.”

She said the party wanted to wait until the local bodies elections in Balochistan were held. Now that the polls are over, the PTI is set to lead sit-ins against Nato supplies.

Mazari expressed concern over the US government’s suggestion to block Pakistan’s share in the Coalition Support Fund if Pakistan does not reopen Nato supply routes.

“This is a pressure tactic used by the US government,” she said. “The US is obliged to give us our share. They are trying to force the federal government to resume the movement of supplies.”

Responding to a question about why the protest was continuing in Peshawar despite the Pentagon’s announcement to suspend Nato supplies, Mazari said if the sit-ins end, the supply routes would resume so to avoid that they had decided to continue protesting.

On December 6, a meeting between the province’s coalition partners had decided to stop the demonstration against Nato supplies. The PTI chairman was supposed to announce an official end to the protest after his trip to India, but the PTI has denied such statements.

According to Mazari, this was another pressure tactic. “We held protests in favour of two objectives – drone strikes and Nato supplies,” she said. “They suspended the shipment and one of our objectives was achieved. The sit-in will continue till drone strikes are stopped in Pakistan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2013.