In a bid to resolve the thorny issue of drone strikes with Pakistan, the United States has proposed slashing the ‘target list’ for these deadly attacks by CIA’s spy planes to a minimum low level with names of only “high value targets” in al Qaeda and Taliban ranks.
The Obama administration and Pakistani authorities have been able to overcome differences on host of issues like restoration of suspended NATO supplies by Islamabad, deployment of CIA operatives and American military trainers and extension of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) arrears to Islamabad by Washington, but differences still persist over drone strikes.
These differences are well reflected in the recommendations of Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) that were tabled in the joint session of both Houses of parliament on Tuesday, in which once again a halt to drone attacks have been demanded.
Pakistani authorities blocked the NATO supplies in the wake of NATO airstrikes on Pakistani border posts in November last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Moreover, the US officials were asked to vacate the Shamsi airbase that was used for drone attacks in the Tribal Areas and Islamabad also boycotted an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn.
After that Pakistani government asked the PCNS to review the relations with US and come up with its recommendations on the vital matter and the committee’s proposals would be now debated from Monday in the joint session of National Assembly and Senate.
In case of parliamentary approval of these recommendations, it is likely that NATO supplies will be restored and some other issues will also get settled but no settlement of drone strikes is in sight yet.
The US administration, however, is trying hard to resolve the matter and US CENTCOM chief General James Mattis and US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, who are expected to visit Islamabad after the joint session of parliament, will discuss the drones issue in detail with Pakistani officials with an aim at its settlement to the satisfaction of both sides.
“The US administration has proposed to Islamabad that it will shorten the list of intended drone strikes’ targets to minimum low level and the future attacks shall be restricted only to targeting few top al Qaeda and Taliban leaders,” said a diplomatic source on Wednesday, requesting anonymity.
He said barring those few top militants’ leaders, the other Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, including the leaders of second and third tiers and their foot soldiers, would not be targeted by the drone strikes, according to US officials.
A Pakistani security official confirmed that the US was trying hard to resolve the contentious issue of drone strikes. He said that US officials were willing to limit the scope of drone attacks in coming months but any decision on the vital matter like other conflicting issues with the United States would be decided by the parliament.