ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s main Islamist party called on the government yesterday to close vital supply routes for NATO and US-led forces in Afghanistan if suspected US drone attacks continue on Pakistani territory.
Sen. Khurshid Ahmed, from Jamaat-e-Islami, raised the issue in Pakistan’s upper house of Parliament, three days after security officials said US missiles killed 21 people, including three children, in the northwest tribal belt.
They were the first such suspected US missile strikes, aimed against militants supporting attacks on foreign troops based in neighboring Afghanistan, since President Barack Obama took office.
“The government should tell the new US administration that if the US missile strikes are not stopped then Pakistan will stop supplies of NATO and US-led forces in Afghanistan,” Ahmed told the Senate.
Dozens of missile strikes since August have sparked heavy criticism of the United States, a close Pakistan ally fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan and believed to be firing the missiles from unmanned CIA aircraft.
Islamabad repeatedly protests that drone strikes violate its sovereignty and deepen resentment among the 160 million people living in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation. “These attacks do not help the war on terror, it alienates the local population,” said a spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari after the head of state lunched with US ambassador Anne Patterson on Saturday.
“We maintain that these attacks are counter-productive and should be discontinued,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman. “With the advent of the new US administration it is Pakistan’s sincere hope that the United States will review its policy and adopt a more holistic and integrated approach toward dealing with the issue of terrorism and extremism.”
The attacks on Friday effectively dashed any hopes Pakistan was nurturing that the new administration in Washington would halt such strikes.
Meanwhile, more than 200 protesters yesterday demonstrated against Pakistan’s appointment of an administrator to oversee the headquarters of a controversial Islamic charity.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) is one of Pakistan’s biggest charities, but it is also widely seen as the political wing of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which India says was behind the attacks on Mumbai in late November.
“Death to America,” “Death to Israel and Jews,” shouted the protesters in Muridke, carrying banners and placards that read: “Cancel administrator’s appointment,” “Remove the ban on Jamaat-ud-Dawa” and “We condemn the UN resolution.”
The Punjab provincial government Sunday appointed civil servant Khaqan Babar to run the schools and hospital at the sprawling headquarters of JuD in the eastern town of Muridke, outside Lahore. “I will take charge of my office on Tuesday,” Babar told AFP in Lahore.
Under intense international pressure, Pakistan cracked down on JuD after the carnage in Mumbai, arresting dozens of members, placing more than 120 others under house arrest including founder Hafiz Saeed, and freezing its assets.
Abu Ehsan, a former JuD administrator, criticized Sunday’s appointment. “This is a wrong step. First the government, under American and Indian pressure, placed a ban through the UN and now the Punjab government has. “We strongly condemn this action and ask the government to review its decision,” he told AFP.
