Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is the first political party to mobilise the public against the NATO supplies going through Pakistan. That might help convey to the US that the route could be blocked permanently if Pakistani demands that CIA agents leave the country and drone attacks be stopped, are not met.
Imran Khan’s call for a dharna (sit-in) put the right wing parties in a dilemma. They ended up supporting the call. First, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and then Jamat-e-Islami (JI) decided to follow Khan’s plan to demonstrate ‘people’s power’ in Peshawar. The JI hosted a roundtable conference that asked the US to stop drone attacks while the JUI-F decided to protest in and outside the parliament.
During his sit-in on the NATO supply route on April 23 and 24, Imran Khan said the drone attacks were responsible for increased radicalism and ultimately fuelled terrorism. People who lose their families, he said, were compelled to join the militants. A number of tribesmen also joined the protest. However, the numbers were not too impressive but event gained immense media attention; and caused the political temperature to rise in the country.
Although many high-value targets, including Nek Muhamad and Baitullah Mehsud, have been killed in the predator strikes, civilians have also been killed. The worst of these attacks was came in March when 80 people, mostly tribal elders, were killed when a drone-fired missile hit a jirga in North Waziristan.
“Women and children are also killed when a drone targets a terrorist in a building,” a tribesman said. “They are innocent and cannot be punished for the crimes of their relatives. They shelter them because they don’t know of their crimes.”
Media reports had said ISI chief Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha would settle the issue permanently in his recent visit to Washington. He is reported to have told US officials that the strikes had a negative impact on the Pakistani military’s own fight against militancy, because they made it hard for the government to muster popular support for the war on terror.
There were reports that US military personnel had vacated the Shamsi Airbase in Balochistan that is believed to have been used for the drone operations. But the attacks have not stopped so far.
The PTI has threatened to permanently block the NATO supply route if drone attacks are not stopped in a month.
Former ISI chief Gen (r) Hamid Gul believes the US would have to leave Afghanistan if the NATO supply line was blocked for two weeks.
During the protest, Imran Khan criticised those who supported the done attacks and said those killed in such strikes were innocent until proven guilty of being involved in terrorism. He called on the Supreme Court to provide justice to the families of the victims of drone attacks.
Khan also criticised the government for not implementing a parliamentary resolution against drone strikes and claimed they were carried out with the government’s support.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Syed Javed Hashmi, Awami National Party dissident Khwaja Hoti, and Pakistan Muslim League Quaid’s Marvi Memon also joined the protest, hoping that mass mobilisation might persuade the government to take up the matter with the US more seriously.
Right-wing Urdu newspapers have reported that the US is shifting its espionage operation centre to Kabul, but the drone attacks are not likely to stop.
