Imran Khan vows to force permanent closure of Khyber Pass

[ghundal]

Imran Khan vows to force permanent closure of Khyber Pass

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/imran-khan-vows-to-force-permanent-closure-of-khyber-pass-1.798671

If US drone raids are not stopped within a month, Imran Khan's party would stage a sit-in

• By Mohsin Ali, Correspondent
• Published: 19:55 April 24, 2011

Islamabad: Ending a two-day blockade of Nato supplies to Afghanistan through the historic Khyber Pass by thousands of his supporters, politician Imran Khan on Sunday vowed to force a permanent closure if the US drone attacks in the tribal areas are not stopped.
Khan, chief of his Tehreek e Insaaf (Justice Movement) party, led a mass sit-in in the suburbs of the northwestern provincial capital, Peshawar, bringing to a standstill hundreds of trucks and oil tankers that daily carry fuel and other supplies for Nato troops battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
He said if US drone raids were not halted within a month his party would stage such sit-in protests at various points on the route from Karachi harbour to the northwestern province in order to choke flow of Nato supplies.
"We will also, in the next phase, march onto Islamabad if the government fails to halt drone strikes in which innocent men, women and children are being killed," the former cricketer-turned-politican said, urging all political parties to join the campaign.
He demanded that human rights activists and domestic and international media be allowed entry into the tribal areas to ascertain whether those killed and injure in drone attakcs were militants or innocent civilians.
Javed Hashmi, a senior figure in the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and Marvi Memon, a female federal lawmaker belonging to PML-Q, joined the Tehreek-e-Insaaf protest on the second day.
Khan lashed out at the Pakistan People's Party government and its leadership, accusing them of corruption, misrule and turning thec ountry into a US client state. He called upon the youth to rise up and support his party to make Paksitan a truly free country
"US is responsible for all bloodshed in the region; it must leave so that peace is restored," he told the flag waving people, who frequently shouted anti-US slogans.
In comments to the media, PPP government's itnerior minister Rehman Malik said the sit-in was an anti-Pakistan act.
Malik said drone strikes in the tribal territory had started during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf and asked Imran Khan as to why he did not agitate then against these raids.

[Catya Sher]

Is he powerful enough yet to force this to happen ?!!

He is entirely right about the PPP - it's always been a disaster.
May it be permanently discredited, never to rise again.

[ghundal]

He is the only person in Pakistan taking action. He puts it best when he says that Pakistan is a US-client state.

He does have good support. this is gain myths spread by the Pakistani elite who want the status quo to remain intact.

His words are resonating with the people.

[ghundal]

He will make good on his words. His Pashtun after all. And ANP/PMAP will become more jealous. The Khyber Pass can be closed with the right amount of people.

Imran Khan is emerging with saying what people are fed up with.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Imran Khan is fast emerging as the man whom patriotic Pakistanis who want a positive change will vote for.

There were rumours last year - which proved to be false - that the army would take over and install Khan as leader.

However at this rate by 2013, the date of the next elections, the PTI could be a serious force in Pakistani politics and Khan could become leader.

The best case scenario for Pakistan is that its current crisis for the past 5 years would go the way of militant insurgencies in Algeria and other countries i.e this would just be a phase, and Pakistan could regain track and head towards becoming a powerful Asian economy.

Or worse case scenario it will break up.

Khan is a man who can make the first case scenario happen.

He is not culturally a Pashtun, but a Pakistani nationalist from Punjab who however is proud of his "Pathan" lineage.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Is he powerful enough yet to force this to happen ?!!

He is entirely right about the PPP - it's always been a disaster.
May it be permanently discredited, never to rise again.

x 2

The PPP along with the Pakistan army and JI (Jamat i Islamic sic) is the most evil institution in Pakistan.

- It broke the country up in 1971

- was responsible for genocide

- and is a party of cruel and evil landlords e.g. a PPP member was involved in the burying alive of girls in Balochistan who refused forced marriage.

They are to Pakistan what the Nazi party are to Germany

[ghundal]

Imran warns of march on Islamabad

Imran warns of march on Islamabad

Imran warns of march on Islamabad | Newspaper | DAWN.COM

By Ashfaq Yusufzai | From the Newspaper (3 hours ago) Today

PESHAWAR, April 24: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan warned on Sunday that workers and supporters of his party would march on Islamabad if the US did not change within a month its policy of carrying out drone attacks in tribal areas.
“If the drone attacks continued after this deadline then PTI’s workers would march on Islamabad,” Mr Khan announced at the conclusion of the two-day sit-in his party had organised in Hayatabad in protest against attacks by unmanned aircraft. He urged the government to respect the parliament’s resolution that called for stopping drone strikes.
“Politicians should end hypocrisy. They should either support the drone strikes or oppose them openly. The government should abandon the dual policy on drone attacks,” Mr Khan said amid thunderous applause.
People sang, danced and shouted for an end to US missile attacks as leaders made speeches.
Mr Khan also demanded that teams of media organisations and human rights groups should be allowed to visit the tribal areas to investigate whether those killed in drone attacks were terrorists or innocent people.
He said problems could not be resolved through wars and the use of guns, adding that talks were the only way to solve them. He offered to help in talks between the government and the Taliban.
“The American people do not know that drones are killing innocent women and children,” he said, adding that if they were apprised of the facts protests would be held against the US government by the American citizens.
He said that international law guaranteed protection of the rights of all human beings irrespective of their race, territory and financial status.
He said Pakistan was the only country that had been using its army to kill its own people and alleged that the rulers had allowed the drone strikes for a few dollars “which was a matter of immense shame”.
Criticising the leaderships of the PML-N and the PPP, Mr Khan said that Mian Nawaz Sharif paid only Rs5,000 income tax while President Asif Zardari, co-chairman of the People’s Party, paid nothing. He regretted that the rich did not pay income tax creating a situation in which price hike hit the masses the hardest.
The PTI leader said the nation did not want to continue to be slaves of America and wanted an independent Pakistan in line with the wishes of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. “We will make Pakistan so strong that people of other countries would come here to seek jobs,” he said.
PML-N’s MNA Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and PML-Q’s lawmaker Marvi Memon also attended the sit-in, which had started on Saturday.
Mr Khan welcomed them. Extending an invitation to Marvi Memon to join the PTI, he asked workers of other political parties to tell their leaders to stand up against the US or join the PTI.
“We will provide protection to women, children and other weak elements of society against the international aggressor; the US is an aggressor because it violates the international law by targeting the innocent people,” he said, adding that all those not convicted by courts were innocent and therefore the US had no right to kill the Pakistanis.
He said the PTI would end discrimination between the rich and the poor and do away with the existing class-based education system and introduce a unified system for the children of the country.Mr Khan said the PTI would gather Shias and Sunnis on a single platform and there would be no difference among the residents of various provinces of Pakistan.

[ghundal]

Imran Khan urges Pakistan to speak out over US drone strikes

The Independent - Print Article


By Omar Waraich in Peshawar
Monday, 25 April 2011
Imran Khan, Pakistan's cricket legend turned politician, challenged his government to "come clean" on their support of CIA-operated drone strikes during a protest which shut down NATO supply routes to Afghanistan for two days.
The sit-in in Peshawar, 35 miles from the Afghan border, has blocked a major road used to supply Western forces in the country. The attacks, which routinely target suspected militants in the tribal areas along the border, have become a highly emotive issue in Pakistan, with innocent civilians often mistakenly targeted.
"If the government supports drone strikes, it should come clean and say so," Mr Khan told The Independent. "If, on the other hand, it genuinely opposes them, then it should order the Pakistan Air Force to shoot them down." Since its inception, Pakistan has quietly tolerated drone strikes.
Mr Khan threatened further protests if drone attacks are not stopped within a month. "The government can no longer play on both sides of the wicket," Mr Khan told a crowd of 5,000.
Hostility to the seven-year covert CIA programme has reached fever pitch in recent weeks after Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani issued a rare denunciation of the strike last month, and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called for drones to be stopped altogether.
For Washington, the drones hold obvious appeal. They are a pilotless means of eliminating high-level al-Qa'ida and Taliban targets where it cannot deploy troops. Pakistani officials have discreetly cheered as drones slayed some of its most wanted terrorists.
While US and even some Pakistani officials insist that the drones have become more accurate, the Pakistani public is incensed by what is perceived to be a high number of civilian casualties.
In Peshawar yesterday the crowd was overwhelmingly young and male. Many had come from nearby regions of the northwest, while others had travelled from as far as Lahore. They hurled taunts at their "corrupt" and "enslaved" politicians and cheered and waved Mr Khan's party flags as Pashtun pop songs blared over the loudspeakers
"The cause has to move from the parliament to the streets because parliament has been ineffective," said Marvi Memon, an opposition parliamentarian who joined the protests.
For Mr Khan, opposition to drone attacks is the latest attempt at making political inroads. While widely cherished as a national treasure for his sporting success and philanthropic efforts, success at the ballot box has proved elusive. But he hopes growing support among Pakistan's youth, 65 per cent of the population, will alter his Movement for Justice's fortunes.
Sajjad Bangash, 24, says he was drawn to the protest by personal circumstances after three of his cousins died in a drone strike in Kurram.
"More than 40 people were killed, and none of them were militants," he claimed.
"We want change and Imran Khan can bring it," enthused Mr Bangash, a student at Gandahara University.
Critics of Mr Khan say that he is too soft on Islamist militants, preferring to cut peace deals with them rather than confront them with force. They say he denounces the drones with greater force than suicide bombings.
Mr Khan counters that Pakistan's participation in the "war on terror" has only fuelled further extremism, created more terrorists and devastated the local economy.

[ghundal]

Nato route to be blocked if drone attacks continue: Imran

Tauseef-ur-Rahman
Monday, April 25, 2011



PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief, Imran Khan, on Sunday set one-month deadline for the government to stop the US drone attacks or his party would block the supply routes for the Nato troops based in Afghanistan.

“I warn the government to force the US to stop the drone strikes or we will launch a long march towards Islamabad and also block the supply route for the Nato forces,” he told the concluding session of the two-day sit-in staged at the Bagh-e-Naran Chowk in Hayatabad against the drone attacks and supplies to Nato forces through Pakistan.

The main supply route for the Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan was blocked and no supplies were delivered for the last three days. Several thousand party workers and supporters, including women from all over the country, participated in the sit-in.

Imran Khan requested Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to fix a date at the earliest for hearing the writ petition filed by his party six months ago against the US drone attacks. “The chief justice should provide justice to those who lost their loved ones in the drone attacks,” he said, adding that the air strikes by the unmanned US aircraft were promoting terrorism and radicalising the society. Imran Khan also demanded that reporters and human rights activists be allowed to visit the drone-hit areas so that they could investigate and find out whether those killed in such attacks were terrorists or innocent tribal people.

“Those who say that drone strikes kill terrorists should be ashamed of themselves. According to international law, a man is innocent until proven guilty. Under which law the US attacks the people in tribal areas?” he questioned. He said those attacking the innocent people were the real terrorists.

He said the people in the US and the United Kingdom were against the so-called war on terror but unfortunately the policymakers in both the countries as well as in Pakistan indulged in the war for their vested interests.

Referring to the resolution passed by parliament against the drone attacks, he asked the government to implement the unanimous resolution in letter and spirit. The PTI chief asked the workers of other political parties to force their leadership to mend its ways and lead the nation in the right direction or join him for changing the fate of the country.

He extended formal invitation to Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti, the ANP dissident member of the National Assembly from Mardan, and PML-Q member of the National Assembly Marvi Memon to join his party.

Earlier, Javed Hashmi, senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), addressed the gathering. He lauded Imran Khan for taking the step to mobilise the masses against the drone strikes and supplies to the Nato forces.

He said the stance of all the political forces in Pakistan over the drone attacks was almost the same. However, he said the difference was about taking practical steps in this regard. “Imran Khan is the only leader who came out openly against the brutalities being committed by the US,” he added.

The emotional Javed Hashmi, who was accorded a warm welcome by the PTI workers, said: “The PML-N’s stance on the drone issue is the same as the PTI, but now we should also take to the streets. The PML-N leader said: “The war in the region will end the day we stop the supplies to the Nato forces in Afghanistan. Peace will be restored in Pakistan and the people will take a sigh of relief.”

“I will request all the political parties to forge unity and stage a sit-in at the Karachi Port where the supplies to the Nato forces arrive and are despatched,” he said.

He paid tributes to Peshawarites for rendering great sacrifices during the ongoing militancy. “The people of Peshawar are fighting the war of Pakistan’s survival and I salute them,” he added.

Marvi Memon, who despite a fracture in her leg attended the event, stated in her speech that the drone attacks and Nato supplies should be stopped. She said the drone attacks had badly hurt the country’s sovereignty. “The government should take concrete steps to halt these strikes as innocent people are being targeted in the attacks,” she added.

Others who spoke on the occasion included PPP MNA Akhunzada Chitan, Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti, Hamidul Haq Haqqani of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI)-Sami, Mufti Kifayatullah of JUI-Fazl, Nighat Orakzai of the PML-Q, Senator Saleh Shah and senior leaders of the PTI.

During the protest sit-in for two days, the excited party workers danced to the loud music played at the venue. Also “Go America Go!” was the most popular slogan during the proceedings.

AFP adds: Nato can resume supplying its troops in Afghanistan today (Monday) through the Ring Road after the protesters lifted the blockade, an official said. “The Peshawar Ring Road has been cleared and reopened for vehicular traffic,” senior local administration official, Muhammad Siraj Khan, told AFP. Trucks will only be able to use the route from today (Monday) because of security reasons, he added.

[ghundal]

Pak rally halts NATO Afghanistan supplies

Pak rally halts NATO Afghanistan supplies


Pakistan halted NATO supply shipments to Afghanistan late Saturday after thousands of protesters rallied on the main road to the border to demand Washington stop firing missiles against militants sheltering inside the country.
NATO commanders said then that the halt did not affect the war effort. The alliance has been opening new routes into Afghanistan from the north in recent years to try to reduce its dependancy on the Pakistan route.
The police officer Khurshid Khan said supplies had been stopped until Monday morning because of the protest. The demonstration was held by the political party of Imran Khan, a former captain of Pakistan’s cricket team. He has long opposed drone strikes in the country.

[Karachi]

good step by him. hopefully the public will join him

[faye]

this news was on the tv here in australia so it has gone international. there will be a lot of expectation and reporters so i hope it is big, big, big.

[Shehbaz Khan]

Imran is getting too much support from the Youth and I am sure the youth is going to vote for him. He is going to give some tough time to the current parties. I don't think he will be able to win that much seats in the Assembly but he definitely will rise to some extent. And yes the support of the people for him is a positive effect. My friends from Hayatabad are there and they are saying that he slept on a container with the people and refused to go to the hotel when he saw the zeal of the people supporting him.. I wish him all the luck and will definitely vote for him!!