The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday upheld an earlier verdict by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and dismissed a petition filed to halt US drone strikes in Pakistani territory.
The petition was dismissed by a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, which stated that such issues were overseen by the government.
“Innocent people are killed in drone strikes,” said the petitioner’s lawyer. The CJP said that drone strikes had now stopped. The last suspected US drone strike in Pakistan occurred in December 2017 along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The apex court further added that the Ministry of Defence and the government could approach the US on the issue, as the court could not ask the US to halt such attacks.
The PHC had earlier forwarded the issue to the Defence Ministry.
A petition was filed in the SC by Raja Saad Sultan, challenging the decision of the PHC for stopping of US-led drone strikes.
A diplomatic row broke out between Islamabad and Washington last year in January over a US drone strike in Kurram Agency (now Kurram District) with both sides publicly rejecting each other’s claims on the actual target.
Reports claimed that the drone targeted a commander from the Haqqani network and his two accomplices, but Pakistan was quick to challenge the reports, insisting that the predator strike actually hit the Afghan refugee camp.
In an unusual move, the US embassy issued a statement, calling Pakistan’s assertion as ‘false’.
That prompted Pakistan to issue a second rebuttal in as many days, but this time it came from the army, that gave more insight into the drone strike.