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Nawaz deceiving people by adopting double standards on US drone attacks: Imran* PTI chief ‘shocked’ over PM’s statement that drone protest is isolating Pakistan * NATO supply blockade to continue until federal govt gets solid assurance from US on drone attacks
Nawaz deceiving people by adopting double standards on US drone attacks: Imran
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Saturday the PML-N was following the “PPP’s habit of duplicity on drones and deceiving the people of Pakistan by covertly supporting the US drone attacks”.
In a statement, Khan expressed shock and disappointment over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement that PTI’s drone protest was isolating Pakistan. He reminded the PM that PML-N along with the PPP had not only been a party to the parliamentary resolutions against drones but also party to the anti-drone resolution in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
In these resolutions the blockade of NATO supplies was specifically mentioned, he said and added the PML-N convened the APC in which its government was given the mandate of commencing dialogue and ending drone strikes by the US in Pakistan.
Khan pointed out that when he had asked the PM in the APC what would happen if the US sabotaged the peace process with a drone attack, he was assured by the PM that his government would take up the issue not only with the US but would also go to the UN.
“The PML-N government has so far neither taken up the issue forcefully with the US nor moved the UNSC under Chapter VII which is where binding action is decided against aggression.”
According to the PTI chief, Zardari’s latest speech also revealed the muk muka [deal] between the PPP and PML-N “as both seek to protect their particularistic interests, especially financial ones lying overseas”.
Khan pointed out that it is not “isolation” the PML-N and PPP are worried about but the security of their assets stashed abroad. He said that leaders who keep their assets overseas cannot be expected to safeguard the interests of their people and secure their country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He stressed that PTI is committed to continuing its blockade of NATO supplies until the federal government gets a solid assurance from the US of an end to drone strikes.
“It is a matter of reasserting the nation’s sovereign dignity and self respect – without which no other nation will respect us. No nation is isolated because it asserts its right to its sovereignty, dignity and self respect.”
He added, “A clear example of this is right in our neighbourhood where India asserted its sovereignty and became one of only three countries that opposed the passage of the CTBT resolution in the UNGA (Bhutan and Libya being the other two countries) in September 1996, yet no one said India was isolated. And now India is standing up against the US in a row over the treatment of an Indian diplomat.”
Khan said Pakistan is not isolated at all because of PTI’s opposition to drone attacks. In fact it is the US that is isolated on drone attacks, including at the UN, he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk