[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] on Monday rejected a petition to stop US drone attacks in the northwestern tribal region of the country. Justice Saqib Nisar presided over the petition and concluded [PTI report] that the it was not a legal issue but rather a security related matter. The decision comes after Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court [official website] last week issued [JURIST report] an order to register a report against former CIA station chief Jonathan Banks for his involvement in a 2009 US drone attack that killed two tribesmen. Outside of the courts, many Pakistani officials have continually condemned the US drone strikes within the county.

The use of drones [JURIST backgrounder] is controversial in both the international arena and in domestic circles. Last March the UN General Assembly passed a resolution [JURIST report] urging states to comply with international law in the use of armed drone strikes. UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson called for transparency and accountability [JURIST report] in the use of drones in counter-terrorism operations in his report in October 2013. A joint Human Rights Watch and International Human Rights Clinic report [text, PDF] also raised possible threats to human rights, such as the right to life, in law enforcement situations. In the US at the same time, California refused to limit drone use in domestic law enforcement when its governor vetoed a bill [JURIST report] that would have required enforcement agencies to acquire warrants to use drones for surveillance.