ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) decided on Thursday that it will end its blockade of NATO supplies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after the Peshawar High court (PHC) declared sit-in staged by PTI and its allied parties to block NATO supplies as illegal.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the PTI core committee held in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss the PHC judgment on the blockade of transit goods into landlocked Afghanistan.
“Decided that, given PTI’s commitment to rule of law and respect for the senior judiciary, the party will end its blockade of NATO supplies,” said a press release issued after the PTI core committee meeting.
The press release said that the PTI core committee felt that the pressure of the blockade had already resulted in a shift in the Obama Administration’s drone policy and as a result drones had been stopped for the present.
It said that the party also reminded that earlier it was the PTI that had built up the pressure against drones by its Waziristan march, supported by international human rights groups.
“The core committee thanked all its workers who had helped make the NATO supply blockade a success,” it said.
The PTI core committee also regretted that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had failed to show respect for law and the senior judiciary by not implementing an earlier the PHC judgment against US drone attacks in which the federal government had been required to blockade NATO supplies and even shoot down a drone if the US failed to stop drone attacks.
