Anti-drone party Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI), the ruling party of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwah (KP) Province, has set an ultimatum of November 20 for all US drone strikes to end against the neighboring tribal areas.
The PTI resolution says that if the strikes don’t end by November 20, they will stop all NATO supplies from traveling through their province, meaning the Khyber Pass will be effectively closed to them.
There was initially talk of imposing an immediate blockade, but PTI leader Imran Khan’s resolution is meant to pressure Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to do something to end the strikes.
Though Sharif has come out against shutting down the supply lines, since the US has just renewed massive aid to the Pakistani government, he was also elected on a promise of ending the drone strikes, and it will be difficult for him to try to stop a provincial government from taking action to make a serious effort to end the strikes.
The drone strikes will not stop until they are met with effective countermeasures, such as SAMs. So we'll see if these guys are all talk and actually put their money where their mouth is.
Pakistan is ruled by a High Society, a rich nobility that owns 90% of the land and needs to keep the people in fearful submission to authority.
Let's hope some one takes this seriously. It's far more important that people who live in these war zones do something to effectively curtail drone strikes than it is for counties in the States to pass out "drone hunting licences". Not to dump on your contribution, everything helps.