PPPP’s vital adjournment motion on US drone attack

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) on Monday submitted adjournment motions in both the houses of parliament — Senate and National Assembly — to discuss the “security calculus in the region and implications of extending drone strikes to Balochistan brought into focus by the killing of Taliban leader Mulla Mansour in a drone strike the other day.”

In the NA Secretariat, the adjournment motion was submitted by Dr Nafisa Shah, Ms. Shazia Marri, Syed Naveed Qamar, Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani and Syed Asghar Ali Shah while Senator Farhatullah Babar submitted the adjournment motion separately in the Senate.

The PPPP through their adjournment motion in the National Assembly stated that a drone strike had been carried out in Balochistan near the Pakistan-Iran border area on 21st May, 2016. “We strongly protest against this foreign intrusion as it is a violation of our national sovereignty. Moreover, the ill-informed response of the Foreign Office is very rhetorical and disappointing,” the adjournment motion stated.

The adjournment motion stated that given that Pakistan is a key player in the ongoing quadrilateral talks and an attack was carried out on Pakistan’s sovereign soil without intimation. “It is high time we should discuss our national foreign policy along with border controls, security and intelligence strategy. This is a serious matter and needs immediate attention of the House without any further delay so that the matter may be resolved at the earliest,” the adjournment motion stated.

Senator Babar stated in his adjournment motion the issue would alter the security calculus in the region while extending drone strikes to Balochistan, already reeling under insurgency and militancy, and had posed new threats to national security and sovereignty.

Senator Farhatullah Babar said if the reports of targeting Mulla Mansour were correct, it meant that five years after Osama Bin Laden was killed by the US in Abbottabad cantonment, a Taliban leader Mulla Mansour whose existence on the Pak soil had been denied was also killed on the Pakistani territory by the US. “This strengthens the perception that elements in the state are harbouring militants,” the motion says and warns “it will give new ammunition to forces inimical to Pakistan.”

He said even if Mulla Mansour had not been killed, the drone attack in Balochistan itself was a dangerous act and even those who had no sympathy for the militants were deeply concerned over it. “This escalation is against the ‘red lines’ reportedly set long ago that strikes in Balochistan are a no go area,” the motion says.

The adjournment motion stated that the reports that Pakistan was informed well before the drone strike had further complicated the situation and added to the gravity and urgency of the matter.

Talking to the media, Senator Farhatullah Babar outlined what he said ‘several disturbing aspects’ of the incident. “From the photograph of the person killed resembles Mulla Mansour but is identified from the papers as Muhammad Wali, a resident of Killa Abdullah in Balochistan with a second address in Karachi,” he said.

Senator Farhatullah Babar said according to reports he was returning from Iran raising different set of questions. “The body of the deceased Muhammad Wali was reportedly handed over to a young man named Muhammad Rafiq claiming to be his nephew in haste and without asking the latter for identification papers,” he said.

He said apart from a dangerous rise in volatility it signaled a readiness to target the Taliban commanders deep inside Pakistan territory even though the Afghan Taliban had not yet been named ‘terrorist group’.