Pakistan’s parliamentary committee demands end to US drone attacks

Pakistan’s parliamentary committee demands end to US drone attacks

A committee of the parliament of Pakistan has recently made a demand to make the United States stop the drone attacks that take place within the Pakistani border. The committee was reviewing the relations between Pakistan as well as the US after which the
demand was made.

It is not expected that the demand will have much effect as the relations between the two countries are at their worst during this past decade.

Raza Rabbani, who is the chairman of the national security committee, shared his views on the matter in the following words: “It needs to be realised that drone attacks are counterproductive, cause loss of valuable lives and property, radicalise the local
population, create support for terrorists and fuel anti-American sentiments.”

On the other hand, Hasan Askari Rizvi, who is an independent political analyst commented on the issue in the following manner: “What the committee has said is not foreign policy. These are only guidelines, which the government can consider while devising
foreign policy. This is just a wish list.”

The relations between Pakistan and the US reached their worst after a NATO airstrike killed a total of 24 Pakistani soldiers last year. The strike took place on two of the border posts and lasted for a period of two hours. The Pakistani military kept contacting
their counterparts from NATO in order to stop the air strikes but there was no response from the NATO forces.

The military of Pakistan dubbed the attack as an unprovoked act of aggression and demanded a full apology from NATO as well as the US. However, no formal apology came from both the parties while NATO maintained the stance that the attack was a result of
error on both the sides. Therefore, only condolences were offered from both the US as well as the NATO forces.

As a result of the incident, negative sentiment for the US as well as the NATO forces escalated in the Pakistani public and the Pakistan government ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party took the immediate action of stopping the supply lines to the NATO forces
from Pakistan.  

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=16479

Posted by Rabiya Maqbool on Mar 20 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry