Tellingly, the Pakistan government has adopted a contradictory stand on the US drone attacks in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt. While publicly it strongly condemns the drone attacks but secretly it approves the drone strikes.
During Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to Washington last month, top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos on Pakistan-US agreement on drones were leaked to the Washington Post. According to the documents, despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA's drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan's government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts.
The Washington Post said that Pakistan's tacit approval of the drone program has been one of the more poorly kept national security secrets in Washington and Islamabad. During the early years of the campaign, the CIA even used Pakistani airstrips for its Predator fleet.
"But the files expose the explicit nature of a secret arrangement struck between the two countries at a time when neither was willing to publicly acknowledge the existence of the drone program. The documents detailed at least 65 strikes in Pakistan and were described as "talking points" for CIA briefings, which occurred with such regularity that they became a matter of diplomatic routine. The documents are marked "top secret" but cleared for release to Pakistan."
Interestingly, a statement issued after the talks between President Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not mention the drone attacks issue.
Government slammed for giving incorrect figures on drone killings
Central Information Secretary Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and member of the National Assembly, Shireen Mazari, has strongly criticized the government and the Interior Minister for giving what are clearly incorrect figures on drone killings.
She was commenting on the Ministry of Defense figures released to lawmakers saying that 67 civilians were among 2,227 people killed in 317 drone strikes since 2008.
While the UN and international NGOs have claimed a high killing rate of civilians in US drone strikes, the present government is giving figures, which do not tally with any independent assessments. For instance, Mazari pointed to an Amnesty Report, which had concluded that at least 19 civilians were killed in just two drone strikes in 2012, including a woman in North Waziristan who was in a field with her grandchildren.
But the new official Pakistani figures stated that no civilians were killed in North Waziristan in 2012 or this year. Yet the surviving family members of this family gave their account of the drone killings to Congress just as the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar was deceiving the people of Pakistan.
Mazari said it is absolutely unacceptable to find such brazen complicity on the part of the government with the US when there is a national consensus against drones and the murder of civilians. The Peshawar High Court judgment of May 2013 not only declared drones illegal under a number of international laws but also termed these as a war crime. Mazari pointed out that the Peshawar High Court in its judgment cited that 3000 Pakistani civilians had died in drone attacks between 2004-2013.
PTI demands the government reveal the true figures of civilian deaths due to drones, identify all the victims by name and implement the PHC resolution. "The callous disregard for the lives of Pakistanis living in FATA is indeed shameful as is the continuing covert collusion between the Pakistani state and the US over drones. This shows where the loyalties of the government lie and it is a clear violation of Article 9 of the Constitution," Mazari added.
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