PESHAWAR - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has requested the KPK IGP to nominate the US and the CIA in Hangu drone strike FIR. Also, a group of provincial assembly members Monday submitted a memorandum to the US Peshawar consulate, demanding an end to drone strikes.
To name the CIA and the US in the FIR of the Hangu drone attack, PTI’s central legal secretary Barrister Suleman Afridi submitted a written request to KPK IGP Nasir Durrani, citing a statement of Interior Minister Ch Nisar, a news story regarding the US drone strike in the Washington Post and decisions of the Peshawar High Court. The IGP ordered the investigation officer to probe the incident and take possible necessary action.
KPK Senior Minister Sirajul Haq led a group of parliamentarians who walked all the way to the US consulate in Peshawar to submit a four-page memorandum protesting the Hangu drone strike and demanding an end to the illegal attacks on Pakistani soil. The PTI and its coalition partners have decided to hold a sit-in in front of the US Embassy, UN offices and Parliament House in Islamabad soon.
To lodge a strong protest against US drones, the KPK MPs handed over the memo to Chief Officer of US consulate in Peshawar, Christopher Ragon.
The memorandum handed over on behalf of the people and government of KPK reads that the unlawful drone strikes by the US in FATA and KPK are a clear act of aggression under the UN Charter and international law against a sovereign state and a war crime against its people (as decreed by the Peshawar High Court decision of April 2013), causing untold and indescribable damage to life, property and peace affecting innocent men, women and children.
Talking to newsmen, Sirajul Haq said that provincial government would not allow a battlefield on its soil. He also underlined the need for peace talks between federal government and the Taliban to resolve the issue amicably.
The Federal Government, he alleged had miserably failed to protect lives and properties of Pakistanis as innocent people are being eliminated in drone attacks. He said that the US drone attack on Hangu was equal to attack on Peshawar or Islamabad.
“US never hesitate to attack on our settled areas which should be an alarm for the whole nation,” he added. He demanded both the government and Taliban start dialogue process to stop terrorism. He asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take the first step and the whole nation would support him.
The KPK Information Minister Shah Farman said that through a resolution passed by the provincial assembly on November 4, it has been demanded the federal government to stop drone strikes by November 20, otherwise the KPK coalition government would be free in making any decision. Today’s step was the very first step and more steps will be taken, including protest in front of US Embassy in Islamabad and a sit-in in front of the Parliament. He said that the people of Pakistan want peace.
Agriculture Minister Shahram Tarakai said that lodging protest is their right and nobody can stop them from protesting in front of the US Embassy.
The ministers further said that people of KPK and their government with one voice condemn the drone strikes as indisputably unlawful, inhuman and immoral aggression against them and a war crime; and call upon the US to forthwith stop drone strikes in FATA and KPK as they are fatal to peace. The federal government should convey to US government, people and its allies, directly and through the UN Security Council, that drone strikes are unacceptable that these must stop; that as a sovereign state Pakistan shall exercise all such options as are available to it when its people and territory are victims of external aggression, the ministers added.