Hours after a US drone strike in North Waziristan, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday expressed Pakistan's opposition to the campaign by the CIA-operated spy planes and said the two sides should find ‘alternative ways to eliminate terrorists’.
Ashraf raised the issue of drone strikes in the backdrop of on Thursday's attack on a compound in North Waziristan when US Ambassador Richard Olson called on the premier at his official residence on Thursday morning.
This was the maiden courtesy call on the premier by Olson, who recently took over as the US envoy.
‘Expressing his concern over the drone attacks, the Prime Minister said that they are counterproductive and we need to find alternative means to eliminate terrorists,’ said a statement issued by the premier's office. The CIA's drone campaign has emerged as a major irritant in US-Pakistan ties in recent months.
Pakistani authorities provided tacit backing for the campaign when it was launched during the military regime of former President Pervez Musharraf.
HAFIZ SAEED HEARING ADJOURNED TILL 31 DEC
A Pakistani court has adjourned till 31 December the hearing of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed’s petition seeking help from the government to defend himself in a US lawsuit filed by relatives of victims of the Mumbai attacks.
Ashraf raised the issue of drone strikes in the backdrop of on Thursday's attack on a compound in North Waziristan when US Ambassador Richard Olson called on the premier at his official residence on Thursday morning.
This was the maiden courtesy call on the premier by Olson, who recently took over as the US envoy.
‘Expressing his concern over the drone attacks, the Prime Minister said that they are counterproductive and we need to find alternative means to eliminate terrorists,’ said a statement issued by the premier's office. The CIA's drone campaign has emerged as a major irritant in US-Pakistan ties in recent months.
Pakistani authorities provided tacit backing for the campaign when it was launched during the military regime of former President Pervez Musharraf.
HAFIZ SAEED HEARING ADJOURNED TILL 31 DEC
A Pakistani court has adjourned till 31 December the hearing of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed’s petition seeking help from the government to defend himself in a US lawsuit filed by relatives of victims of the Mumbai attacks.