PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided on Friday to hold protests in front of the US embassy in Islamabad and consulate in Peshawar and the National Assembly building against the Hangu drone attack.
An emergency meeting of the provincial cabinet held with chief minister Pervez Khattak in the chair, formed a three-member committee to work out details of the protests and garner support of other political parties, Information Minister Shah Farman said at a press conference.
The cabinet, he said, severely criticised the violation of the province’s territory and decided to protest to the federal government and the prime minister and to demonstrate in front of the US embassy and its consulate.
The minister said that members of national assembly and provincial assemblies belonging to coalition partners would attend the demonstrations in front of the US embassy, the consulate in Peshawar, the National Assembly building, and the UN Mission in Islamabad.
“We are on the same page as it is a matter of our national pride and sovereignty,” Jamaat-i-Islami’s Inayatullah Khan, the provincial minister for local government and rural development, said, referring to an agreement among JI, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), a Swabi-based political party.
Provincial Agriculture Minister Shahraam Tarakai who belongs to the AJIP said the coalition partners had agreed to work jointly for restoration of peace and stand against attacks on national sovereignty.
Mr Farman said that since the foreign policy was a federal subject, the provincial government had decided to protest to the federal government and prime minister against the territorial violation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The provincial cabinet, he said, believed that another all-party conference should be immediately convened to discuss the Hangu attack and evolve a joint policy against drone attacks and military supplies to foreign forces in Afghanistan.
He said the ministerial committee would contact leaders of all political parties to invite them to join a sit-in in front of the National Assembly building and demonstrations in front of the US consulate, its embassy and the UN mission.
The provincial government firmly believes that there is a serious need to hold an APC and review the situation afresh because the US was bent upon violating ‘our sovereignty’.
He said the UN had already declared drone strikes a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and the Amnesty International had taken note of the killing of innocent civilians.
All political parties, he said, needed to sit together to evolve a plan to defend national sovereignty.
Replying to a question, he said, if the federal government did not convene the APC, the PTI would reserve the right to take the initiative and convene one on its own.
He accused the US of spoiling Pakistan’s efforts to reach a negotiated settlement of its internal security crisis and said the PTI believed that it was a ‘unique war’ in which two parties (the federal government and militants) wanted to negotiate to resolve the issue, but the third party (the US) was destroying the process.
The provincial government, he said, was of the opinion that Pakistan needed the leadership to take a bold stand against the US aggression.