JURIST - Paper Chase: Pakistan lawmakers call on US to stop CIA drone attacks

[JURIST] The Pakistani parliamentary national security committee on Tuesday urged the US to stop the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] drone attacks [JURIST news archive]. The relationship between the two countries has suffered since a NATO airstrike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers [JURIST op-ed] at the Salala check point in Mohmand. The report by the committee further demanded [BBC report] that the US apologize for the November incident, that most of the NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistan be transported via the rail system and that tariffs for such to be increased. Both chambers of the Pakistani parliament will be debating next Monday on how to re-engage with the US based on the newly released report.

The US drone strikes, an effort to counteract terrorist groups such as al Qaeda at the Pakistani-Afghanistan border, have created debate [JURIST op-ed] about their compliance with international laws. This month, a UK human rights group and law firm expressed its intention to bring claims [JURIST report] against the British government in assisting the US with the drone strikes against Pakistan which killed more than 40 people. In July, three Pakistani men filed a complaint [JURIST report] to arrest a former CIA legal counsel for authorizing an unmanned drone strikes. The Obama administration has defended [JURIST report] the legality of such use.