ISLAMABAD, 24 January 2006 — The North Western Frontier Province Assembly adopted a resolution yesterday demanding declaration of American Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker as a persona non-grata following a US airstrike that killed 18 civilians.

The assembly condemned the attacks in Bajour and Waziristan.

When the legislature met in Peshawar yesterday morning, Anwar Kamal Marwat, tabled the resolution demanding the house to condemn the United States for what it termed, “anti-human” policies in the tribal region and asked the Federal government to declare the US ambassador in Islamabad as a persona non-grata for not tendering an apology over the deaths of innocent people including women and children in Bajour.

The assembly debated the issue and adopted the resolution with a majority vote.

“We demand the federal government declare US ambassador in Pakistan a persona non-grata over the missile attack, which the American forces carried out in Bajour where innocent civilians were killed,” the resolution said. The resolution also called on the government to seek a UN Security Council condemnation of the incident and demand an apology from Washington.

But Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said that the government would neither expel the US ambassador nor seek any apology from Washington.

“I have no comment on the resolution,” Aslam told a briefing. “We have not sought an apology, but we have made it very clear to the US authorities that security inside Pakistan is the government of Pakistan’s business.”

She said, “Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will take up the Bajour issue with US President George W. Bush during his meeting at the White House.

Police separately stopped a convoy of around 1,000 opposition lawmakers and their hard-line supporters heading to the remote village bordering Afghanistan where the Jan. 13 attack happened.

The attack on a house in the Bajour tribal agency, which US intelligence sources said targeted Al-Qaeda No.2 Ayman Al-Zawahiri, triggered nationwide protests and strong condemnation by the government.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan addressed a crowd of opposition supporters at a checkpoint after their delegation was turned back from the attack site, saying the Bajour incident had united the opposition.

“If this unity prevails, we will also remove Musharraf,” he said.