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Imran ends Nato plans for Afghanistan: WP
Imran Khan, a Pakistani provincial leader, complicates NATO plans for Afghanistan - The Washington Post
Imran complicates Nato plans for Afghanistan: WP
Imran complicates Nato plans for Afghanistan: WP
January 06, 2014
INP
WASHINGTON - For years, American officials have tried to persuade Pakistan’s military chiefs and prime ministers to cooperate with US-led war plans in neighboring Afghanistan. But now it is a politician in a far-flung province who is standing in the way. Imran Khan, an Oxford-educated millionaire, leads an effort to shut down supply routes to Afghanistan.
Angered by US drone strikes, Imran has effectively halted Nato convoys through northwest Pakistan, a vital crossing point for trucks carrying supplies to and from landlocked Afghanistan, Washington Post in a report said on Sunday.
Khan’s party controls the local government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which Nato convoys must pass through to reach the northern border crossing. After US drone strikes in Pakistan this fall, the 61-year-old politician called on his supporters to block the transit routes in protest. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has appeared powerless to stop him.
In a blunt signal of the coalition’s unease, about 20 diplomats from Nato countries, including the United States, summoned Imran for dinner in early December at the German ambassador’s residence in Islamabad. According to Imran and others present, the encounter became tense.
“They kept saying, ‘Look, we have nothing to do with it; it’s all the CIA’?” carrying out the drone attacks, Imran recalled. “I said, ‘Look, you are all coalition partners.’ “
At one point, Imran said, he asked the European diplomats how they would feel if Pakistan started secretly killing people living in their countries who were wanted on warrants in Pakistan. Even some conservative religious politicians question Imran’s strategy. “He is providing an excuse to the US to remain on Afghanistan’s soil,” said Abdul Jalil Jan, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami party in Kyber Pakhunkhwa. But on a recent visit by a reporter to protest camps near Peshawar, party workers chanted ‘Long live Imran Khan’ as they waited to quiz the next round of truck drivers on their cargo.
With Sharif and Pakistan’s military vowing that the supply routes must remain open, Imran’s campaign is a remarkable show of defiance in a country that has been under military rule for more than half of its 67-year history.
A self-described liberal pacifist, Imran shows no sign of backing down. He says that although U.S. drone strikes may be aimed at violent militants, many wind up killing innocent civilians and fuel terrorism by angering the local population.
“The reason we are taking this stand is to tell the US, “Okay, it’s fine to protect American lives, but how can you sacrifice a whole country for it?’?” Imran said in a recent interview at his mountaintop estate on the outskirts of Islamabad.
The attacks also violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, Imran says, and he notes that the Pakistani army is bearing the brunt of the retaliatory strikes from militants. Imran became a media sensation because of his perceived appeal to progressive younger voters and urbanites, tens of thousands of whom would show up at his campaign rallies. His past reputation as a playboy, as well as his marriage to and divorce from socialite Jemima Goldsmith, daughter of British billionaire James Goldsmith, added to his mystique.
Khan had been warning for months that he and his party would seek to cut off NATO supply routes if the U.S. drone strikes didn’t end. The U.S. military says the land routes, used by civilian contractors, are a quick and cost-effective way to remove its vast store of equipment and hardware from landlocked Afghanistan ahead of the departure of most troops next year. When the drone attacks continued this fall, including a November strike in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, Imran and thousands of others held a day-long protest on a highway used by Nato convoys on the outskirts of the province’s capital, Peshawar.
When reports reached Kabul and Washington that some Nato truck drivers were being roughed up by protesters, the coalition suspended its convoys through the northern border crossing. Coalition military commanders in Kabul and US Embassy officials in Islamabad have sought to play down the disruption, noting that Nato supplies are still moving through Pakistan’s southern province of Balochistan.
But Khan’s party says it also has plans to blockade the port in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, which would be a dramatic escalation. And there are growing signs that U.S. and NATO officials consider Khan’s stance to be far more than just an annoyance.
When US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited Pakistan in early December, he warned that the country could lose billions of dollars in US military aid if the blockade continued, according to US and Pakistani media accounts. Two weeks later, Marine Gen Joseph F Dunford Jr., commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, traveled to Islamabad to meet with new military chief, Lt-Gen Raheel Sharif.
Imran complicates Nato plans for Afghanistan: WP
Imran complicates Nato plans for Afghanistan: WP
January 06, 2014
INP
WASHINGTON - For years, American officials have tried to persuade Pakistan’s military chiefs and prime ministers to cooperate with US-led war plans in neighboring Afghanistan. But now it is a politician in a far-flung province who is standing in the way. Imran Khan, an Oxford-educated millionaire, leads an effort to shut down supply routes to Afghanistan.
Angered by US drone strikes, Imran has effectively halted Nato convoys through northwest Pakistan, a vital crossing point for trucks carrying supplies to and from landlocked Afghanistan, Washington Post in a report said on Sunday.
Khan’s party controls the local government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which Nato convoys must pass through to reach the northern border crossing. After US drone strikes in Pakistan this fall, the 61-year-old politician called on his supporters to block the transit routes in protest. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has appeared powerless to stop him.
In a blunt signal of the coalition’s unease, about 20 diplomats from Nato countries, including the United States, summoned Imran for dinner in early December at the German ambassador’s residence in Islamabad. According to Imran and others present, the encounter became tense.
“They kept saying, ‘Look, we have nothing to do with it; it’s all the CIA’?” carrying out the drone attacks, Imran recalled. “I said, ‘Look, you are all coalition partners.’ “
At one point, Imran said, he asked the European diplomats how they would feel if Pakistan started secretly killing people living in their countries who were wanted on warrants in Pakistan. Even some conservative religious politicians question Imran’s strategy. “He is providing an excuse to the US to remain on Afghanistan’s soil,” said Abdul Jalil Jan, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami party in Kyber Pakhunkhwa. But on a recent visit by a reporter to protest camps near Peshawar, party workers chanted ‘Long live Imran Khan’ as they waited to quiz the next round of truck drivers on their cargo.
With Sharif and Pakistan’s military vowing that the supply routes must remain open, Imran’s campaign is a remarkable show of defiance in a country that has been under military rule for more than half of its 67-year history.
A self-described liberal pacifist, Imran shows no sign of backing down. He says that although U.S. drone strikes may be aimed at violent militants, many wind up killing innocent civilians and fuel terrorism by angering the local population.
“The reason we are taking this stand is to tell the US, “Okay, it’s fine to protect American lives, but how can you sacrifice a whole country for it?’?” Imran said in a recent interview at his mountaintop estate on the outskirts of Islamabad.
The attacks also violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, Imran says, and he notes that the Pakistani army is bearing the brunt of the retaliatory strikes from militants. Imran became a media sensation because of his perceived appeal to progressive younger voters and urbanites, tens of thousands of whom would show up at his campaign rallies. His past reputation as a playboy, as well as his marriage to and divorce from socialite Jemima Goldsmith, daughter of British billionaire James Goldsmith, added to his mystique.
Khan had been warning for months that he and his party would seek to cut off NATO supply routes if the U.S. drone strikes didn’t end. The U.S. military says the land routes, used by civilian contractors, are a quick and cost-effective way to remove its vast store of equipment and hardware from landlocked Afghanistan ahead of the departure of most troops next year. When the drone attacks continued this fall, including a November strike in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, Imran and thousands of others held a day-long protest on a highway used by Nato convoys on the outskirts of the province’s capital, Peshawar.
When reports reached Kabul and Washington that some Nato truck drivers were being roughed up by protesters, the coalition suspended its convoys through the northern border crossing. Coalition military commanders in Kabul and US Embassy officials in Islamabad have sought to play down the disruption, noting that Nato supplies are still moving through Pakistan’s southern province of Balochistan.
But Khan’s party says it also has plans to blockade the port in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, which would be a dramatic escalation. And there are growing signs that U.S. and NATO officials consider Khan’s stance to be far more than just an annoyance.
When US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited Pakistan in early December, he warned that the country could lose billions of dollars in US military aid if the blockade continued, according to US and Pakistani media accounts. Two weeks later, Marine Gen Joseph F Dunford Jr., commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, traveled to Islamabad to meet with new military chief, Lt-Gen Raheel Sharif.
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