Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Thousands of
workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies gathered on Ring Road
and blocked it for Nato supplies to press the US to stop drone strikes in
Pakistan on Saturday, where Imran Khan asked the federal government to use air force
for hitting drones following US disregard for Pakistan and its leadership.
Not a single truck was
allowed to transport supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan, or pull out
military equipment from that war-torn country where the US and Nato forces are
gearing up for withdrawal. The protesters sat on the dual carriageway that
forks from the Grand Trunk Road to bypass the city and run through Khyber
Agency to Afghanistan. Several containers were stacked one on another across
the road to make a lofty stage that blocked the road.
No container-laden trucks,
Nato or others, were seen stalled at the site of the sit-in. A police official
said containers were stopped in Nowshera and other cities and some were
diverted towards Chaman, another route used for Nato supplies.
Imran Khan in his
address said they would block Nato supplies not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
where his party is in power, but across the country. He asked the provincial
government to initiate action for officially stopping Nato supplies through the
province.
Before the start of the
sit-in in Peshawar, he said it would continue until a US assurance that it was
stopping the unmanned aircrafts’ strikes. However, the protest was called off
Saturday evening soon after he and other leaders addressed.
The Nato trucks may be
able now to use the route for supplies. However, according to PTI’s provincial
spokesman, Ishtiaq Urmar, party workers will stop Nato supplies at different
points in the province. He said workers will launch sit-ins at Khairabad
Bridge, Swabi Moterway Interchange, Charsadda Motorway Interchange and toll
plaza on Ring Road near Hayatabad.
Imran Khan said Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised with the nation that he would stop drone
strikes. “Mian Sahib,” he addressed the prime minister, “will you now issue
mere condemnations over drone strikes or order air force to knock drones down.”
He said Nawaz Sharif
did not take up the issue of drone attacks in meeting with US President Barack
Obama, which shattered his hopes. The PTI leader said he accepted election
results despite rigging and trusted Nawaz Sharif in an effort to collectively
rid the country of US aggression. “We still stand with you,” he said,
addressing Nawaz Sharif.
He was angry that the
US disrespected Pakistan’s parliament and political leadership by carrying out
drone strikes at a time they were opposed. “The parliament passed a resolution
asking an immediate halt to drone strikes and the US conducted an attack that
night. For the first time, an elected government initiated talks after mandate
by all political parties and the US attacked [the slain TTP chief] Hakimullah
Mehsud to sabotage it. They have no respected for us,” he said. “And Sartaj
Aziz’s trust was shattered a day after he was assured of a halt to drone
attacks during talks,” he added.
Imran Khan said it was
a defining movement for Pakistan to choose between disgrace and self-respect
and independence. He said Pakistan should be treated as a friend, not a slave.
“There is difference between slavery and friendship,” he said, standing in front
of giant banner that read, “our land, our way.”
He asked prime minister
whether he would also tell lies to the nation like previous rulers or take a
stand. “Nations are not made by begging before others, but by taking stand,” he
remarked.
He said the federal
government should tell the US it was with it in establishing peace, not in
waging wars. He said conflict and violence had wreaked havoc in KP and
destroyed lives of six million people of Fata. When Pakistan was joining the US
war, he added, it owed Rs5,000 billion debt but now it had soared to Rs14,000
billion. “Increase in debt in one decade of war is more than the debt Pakistan
got in several decades. The debt increased because Pakistan spent huge money in
the US war,” he claimed.
Imran Khan said that
not a single attacker of the 9/11 belonged to Pakistan but it was made to
suffer in life and material. He said 50,000 people including thousands of
soldiers had died in this war, yet the US was not satisfied. “It is still
trumpeting on ‘do more.’ It’s telling us that we are not fighting honestly and
competently despite that their soldiers are losing war in Afghanistan,” he
taunted. He disgusted the US policy that made Pakistanis suffer immensely and
at the same time disgraced and maligned them.
In response to a statement by Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazlur Rahman, he said PTI did not want to become Shaheed but would emerge as Ghazi. He indicated dissolution of
assembly if his party’s government was destabilised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We,
the allies, have decided not to become Shaheed
if our government is detsabilised, rather we will seek fresh mandate,” he said.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s
central Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said his party had decided to stop Nato
trucks in Karachi today (Sunday). PTI’s Shah Mehmood said if Nawaz Sharif was
not pursuing dual policy as he claimed he should convene another APC to make a
new strategy. Javed Hashmi said the American nation was becoming extremely
intolerant to Washington’s policy of wars and was rising up against the
government.
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