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Drone attacks KP cabinet to protest outside parliament

By Amir Wasim 2013-12-01
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and all members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet will hold a demonstration outside the Parliament House on Dec 5 against US drone attacks and the federal government`s `failure` to raise the issue at international forums.

According to the head of Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf`s media cell, Chaudhry Rizwan, the decision to hold a `unique protest` by a provincial government against the federal government was taken at a meeting of the party`s core committee on Saturday. It was presided over by PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Mr Rizwan said the chief minister would lead the demonstration and hand over a memorandum to a representative of the federal government urging it to order the blockade of Nato supplies till the US stopped drone strikes.

The meeting, also attended by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Javed Hashmi, Jahangir Tareen and Dr Shireen Mazari, finalised aplan to hold a countrywide protest against price hike and unemployment on Dec 22 and appealed to the nation to `get ready for it`.

Condemning the latest drone attack in Miramshah, the PTI leaders called upon the federal government to `emulate the PTI` by blocking Nato supplies.

The meeting asked the government to immediately remove National Accountability Bureau chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry since the Supreme Court had already declared him an accused in the NICL scam.

Addressing the meeting, Imran Khan criticised the federal government for failing to get drone attacks stopped despite decisions of an all-party conference, unanimous resolutions of parliament and promises made by the PML-N during the election campaign.

He regretted that the prime minister had failed in securing any assurance from President Barack Obama on the drone issue.

The meeting decided to continue blocking Nato supply routes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.