Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan, on Tuesday announced to launch two-pronged strategy- public pressure within the country and litigation at international court of law, to compel the US government to stop drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas.
He announced this at a joint news conference along with Clive Smith, representative of Reprieve, a charity that provides free legal aid to the victim families of drone attacks in collaboration with Justice Project of Pakistan, headed by a lawyer Mirza Shehzad Akbar.
"Our rulers have sold national sovereignty for the sake of American dollars", Imran accused the PPP-led coalition government and also urged the people to take to streets against the 'state-sponsored' terrorism, adding that the time to act has reached. Referring to an estimation of local Malik from North Waziristan, Imran said that 90 percent of the people targeted in drone attacks were innocent civilians, adding that 18 out of every 20 victims of drone strike were civilians.
He said that the bodies of the drone attacks' victims were usually beyond recognition and somehow the victims become suspects after they were dead. "Alleged terrorists are innocent until proven guilty", he added. Imran also criticised the government for what he claimed that it has fixed the match of drone attacks with the US administration, adding that the government has completely failed to protect the life and property of the people.
He further said that the notion as "democracy is the best revenge" has become a joke to the nation and also invited all political parties to his proposed two-days sit-in scheduled to be held in Peshawar on April 23 and 24 against the drone attacks. "It is a national cause and it is our duty to rise up against the naked foreign aggression", he maintained. The PTI chief also thanked Clive Smith and his team for helping the drone attacks victim's families.
Speaking on the occasion Smith said that they are meeting affected people and helping them with litigation in the US, UK, Pakistan, and International Courts. A local Malik from North Waziristan, Gulabat Khan while speaking said that continuation of Musharraf's policies was disastrous for the tribal people who have always rendered sacrifices for the defence of Pakistan and liberation of Kashmir. Shehzad Akbar said the US, Nato and the allies forces can be charged for war crimes in international courts and that political will is needed to expose the war on terror, which has actually become the war of terror.