ISLAMABAD -
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday to direct the Federation to stop drone attacks, which have killed hundreds of innocent people in FATA/Waziristan.
Mado Jan, a resident of South Waziristan Agency, in person filed the petition under Article 184(3) of Constitution, making the Federation through secretaries ministry of interior, ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of defence, ministry of information and US ambassador/US charge d' affairs as respondents.
The killing of Pakistani citizens on large scale is an offence of murder of which US President Barak Obama and others should be dealt with in accordance with law.
The external aggression committed by America through drone strikes is tantamount to crime of murder under law of the land, the United Nations Charter and the international law, he said. The drone attacks taking life of innocent citizens are in violation of Article 9 read with Article 14 of the 1973 Constitution.
The drone attacks are still continued, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of citizens including women and children. He stated that according to a report of political authorities of North Waziristan Agency, 896 civilians of the said Agency were killed during the last five years till December 2012, while 209 were seriously injured, on the other hand only 47 foreigner were killed and six injured. Similarly, in South Waziristan Agency 70 drone strikes were carried out in the last five years till June 2012. He said 553 local civilians were killed and 126 injured in the attacks.
The petitioner mentioned that the National Assembly as well as provincial assemblies of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochitan had passed the resolutions, besides that the respondents did not take steps to restrain drone attacks in FATA. He complained that surprisingly no big TV channels or renowned journalists ever shown interest to demand permission to visit the sites of occurrence and show the real picture of drone devastation.
He said the drone attacks with or without the consent of respondents against its citizens are the violation of Article 245 of the Constitution. The petitioner expressed pleasure that the Pakistan's Armed Forces are fully prepared for the national defence. He quoted Brig (Retd) Masood's statement that Pakistan has capability of downing drones, but the government did not want to spoil relations with the United States. He stated that under the constitution the Armed Forces can be called either to defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war or to act in aid of civil power.