{"id":32434,"date":"2013-05-10T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T09:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/us-drone-strikes-illegal-govt-should-stop-them-pakistani-court\/32434\/"},"modified":"2013-05-10T10:24:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T09:24:00","slug":"us-drone-strikes-illegal-govt-should-stop-them-pakistani-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/us-drone-strikes-illegal-govt-should-stop-them-pakistani-court\/","title":{"rendered":"US drone strikes illegal, govt should stop them \u2014 Pakistani court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pakistani<\/a><\/div>\n

A high court in Pakistan has ruled that US drone strikes in the country’s tribal belt should be considered war crimes and directed the government to use force to “protect the right to life” of its citizens.<\/p>\n

The Peshawar High Court has recommended the Pakistani government
\nadvance a resolution against the attacks in the United Nations. The
\ncourt issued its verdict on the CIA-run air strikes in response to
\nfour petitions charging the attacks killed civilians and caused
\n\u201ccollateral damage.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan heard the petitions, and ruled
\nthat drone strikes on sovereign Pakistani territory were illegal,
\ninhumane and a violation of the UN charter on human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Pakistan must ensure that no drone strike
\ntakes place in the future,\u201d<\/i> the court said on Thursday,
\naccording to the Press Trust of India. Khan also asked Pakistan’s
\nforeign ministry to file a resolution against the attacks in the
\nUN.<\/p>\n

The court also recommended that if the US rejects these findings
\nin the UN, Pakistan should break off relations with Washington:
\n\u201cIf the US vetoes the resolution, then the country should think
\nabout breaking diplomatic ties with the US.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n


<\/i> The Pakistani case was filed last year by the
\nFoundation for Fundamental Rights, a charity based in Islamabad, on
\nbehalf of the families of victims killed in a drone attack on a
\ntribal jirga, including more than 50 tribal elders and a number of
\ngovernment officials.<\/p>\n

According to a report submitted by political officials of North
\nWaziristan Agency, 896 Pakistani residents of the region were
\nkilled in the last five years ending December 2012, and 209 were
\nseriously injured. A report by the South Waziristan Agency showed
\nthat 70 drone strikes were carried out in the last five years
\nending June 2012, in which 553 people were killed and 126
\ninjured.<\/p>\n

“In view of the established facts, undeniable in nature,
\nunder the UN Charter and Conventions, the people of Pakistan have
\nevery right to ask the security forces either to prevent such
\nstrikes by force or to shoot down intruding drones,”<\/i> the court
\nverdict said.<\/p>\n

Shahzad Akbar, a lawyer for victims in the case, hailed this as
\na \u201clandmark\u201d judgment: \u201cDrone victims in Waziristan will now get
\nsome justice after a long wait. This judgment will also prove to be
\na test for the new government: If drone strikes continue and the
\ngovernment fails to act, it will run the risk of contempt of
\ncourt,\u201d he said, according to the website of legal action charity
\nReprieve.<\/p>\n

The United States regularly targets Al-Qaeda and Taliban
\nmilitants in Pakistan’s mountainous tribal regions accused of
\ncarrying out cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Washington <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A high court in Pakistan has ruled that US drone strikes in the country’s tribal belt should be considered war crimes and directed the government to use force to “protect the right to life” of its citizens. The Peshawar High Court has recommended the Pakistani government advance a resolution against the attacks in the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}