Fehmida condemns US drone strikes, says some parliamentarians not against strikes in FATA

Fehmida condemns US drone strikes, says some parliamentarians not against strikes in FATA

By Mohammad Saleem Mehsud

ISLAMABAD, Oct 23 : Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza on Saturday vehemently condemned the US drone strikes in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan and blamed some parliamentarians for supporting such attacks which are counterproductive.

Speaking in talks show at private TV channel, Dr Fehmida, first Woman Speaker of parliament in the Muslim world, said when the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Pakistan in July 2010 on state visit, she met with parliamentarians and held discussions with them over various current issues and also learned about their view point on various issues.

Dr Fehmida said that during our meeting with Hillary Clinton we condemned strongly drone attacks in the tribal belt and also urged her to convey our message to the US government for stopping such attacks which were contributing to anti-Americans sentiments in the region.

Hillary Clinton on the occasion said that she had met parliamentarians and also seek their viewpoint over various hot issues including US drone attacks but there was mix response as some of the parliamentarians favored US drone attacks while others were against drone attacks. “All the parliamentarians were not against US drones,” Hilary said that your demand lacks unanimity.

When asked to identify names of the parliamentarians who are not against US drones, Dr Fehmida responded negatively and said that it is not good to identify names of those parliamentarians.

Dr Fehmida further said that opposition was performing its role efficiently in the parliament and refuted the blame that government is enjoying with friendly opposition. She said that our party is strictly following the policy of reconciliation and did not want confrontation with any party or state-institutions.

Responding to question about general view prevailing in the country at large that political parties were not democratic as one and same leader leads the party while such parties were claiming for strengthening democratic instructions in the country Dr Fehmida Mirza said that such allegations were wrong and baseless because only person of qualities could lead a political party.