Pakistan summons US envoy to protest over drones

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad summoned an American diplomat yesterday to protest over the latest US drone strike which killed seven people in northwest Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said.
The missile attack in the restive North Waziristan tribal district on Friday was the first since Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as prime minister this week calling for an end to such strikes.
“It was conveyed to the US envoy that the government of Pakistan strongly condemns the drone strikes which are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Foreign Ministry statement said, calling for an immediate end to the attacks.
Richard Hoagland, the US charge d’affaires — a senior American diplomat stationed in Pakistan — was summoned to the foreign office on the instructions of Sharif, it said.
“It was also pointed out that the government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications,” the statement said.
Attacks by unmanned American aircraft are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, but Washington views them as a vital tool in the fight against Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Sharif’s government had also publicly criticized the drone strike that killed Taleban deputy Waliur Rehman last week.
Rehman, the number two in the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) faction, died along with at least five others when a drone fired two missiles on a house in North Waziristan on May 29.
The senior leader, who had a $ 5 million US government bounty on his head, was killed after US President Barack Obama outlined new and more restrictive guidelines on drone use.
Experts say ties with Washington will be a key part of Sharif’s tenure, particularly as NATO withdraws the bulk of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of next year after more than 12 years of war.