Pakistan: “Stop the US drones”

Open inquiry into anti-Osama blitz

ISLAMABAD– The Islamabad parliament has approved a resolution calling on the United States to stop the drone raids on Pakistani territory and calls for the opening of an independent inquiry into the Navy Seals blitz that led to the killing of the former al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. This was reported by the issuer’s website ‘Dawn’, stating that the document was approved after a parliamentary debate lasting over 10 hours. “The drone attacks must cease immediately – the resolution reads – otherwise the parliament will be forced to consider some measures such as the revocation of the transit permit for NATO vehicles” directed to Afghanistan. Pakistani intelligence chief (ISI), Ahmad Shuja Pasha, intervened during the river session.

The government squared up around Army and ISI, reiterating that no one was aware of either the operation prepared in the United States or the presence on the territory of Bin Laden. “In the past,” said the Pakistani Information Minister, Ms. Firdous Ashiq Awan, “we made mistakes due to gaps in our political and military apparatus, but” he stressed, “we have decided that such mistakes will not happen. again. We are at the side of our armed forces, and we will not leave our intelligence services alone. ” In protest, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, commander of the Joint Force Joint Command, has in the meantime canceled a five-day visit to the United States, which should have started on May 22nd.

But the main Pakistani opposition party has today branded as “weak” the resolution and condemnation of the American Abbottabad blitz. In a press conference in Lahore, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who leads the Muslim-Nawaz Pakistani League (Pml-N), severely attacked the government for managing the fight against terrorism and “allowing drone attacks” (unmanned aircraft) used by the CIA against the Taliban bases in the north-west. In particular, Sharif asked the executive to reveal to Parliament the spending of the army and the secret services.

However, pressing requests for collaboration come from the West. “Pakistan must join the West in the fight against the Taliban threat,” NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen writes to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Rasmussen urges the authorities of the Asian country to maintain the traditional partnership with Western allies against the Taliban, who yesterday near Peshawar perpetrated a double suicide bombing to “avenge” the “martyrdom” of the founder of al Qaeda. “The suicide attack in the Shabqadar training center that caused the death of 89 cadets shocked me, writes Rasmussen.
(May 14, 2011)