Pakistan Party Hails U.S. Suspension of Supply Trucks
Former cricketer Imran Khan's party claimed a "tactical success" Wednesday after the U.S. military suspended shipments of equipment out of Afghanistan via a key Pakistani route, citing protests that posed a risk to truck drivers.
Activists in northwest Pakistan, some armed with clubs, have been forcibly searching trucks in an effort to halt NATO supplies in protest over U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.
The unofficial checkpoints began on November 24 after a call to blockade NATO supplies by Khan, the head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) political party.
Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said on Tuesday that the U.S. had "voluntarily halted" shipments of cargo leaving Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Torkham is a key transit point used by the Americans and NATO to withdraw military hardware from Afghanistan, as part of a troop pullout set to wrap up by the end of 2014.
Another border crossing point for NATO convoys in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province is not subject to the PTI-led protests, and convoys there are understood to be unaffected by the suspension.
PTI spokeswoman Shireen Mazari hailed the Pentagon's move as a "tactical success" and said the protests would continue.
"The U.S. decision to halt NATO supplies through Torkham doesn't affect our protest and we will continue our protest until drone strikes are stopped," she told Agence France Presse.
Khan demanded the government block NATO supplies after a U.S. drone strike that killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud but Islamabad has shown no appetite for such a move.
US officials said trucks have been told to wait for now in holding areas in Afghanistan, with Washington expecting the route to resume operating soon.
A U.S. defense official said Washington believed the Islamabad government fully supported the use of the route and that it would soon restore security to the area.
Islamabad signed a deal with the U.S. in July last year allowing NATO convoys to transit Pakistan until the end of 2015, but a spokesman for the interior ministry said they were unable to intervene.
"Maintaining law and order is a provincial subject and the provincial government is responsible for security of NATO trucks, we can't direct them in this regard," Omer Hameed Khan told AFP.
The PTI leads the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but highways come under the authority of the federal government, and some have argued there is no legal basis for the blockade.
Alternative routes
The United States has alternative routes available to Afghanistan's north through Central Asia, though those options take longer and are more expensive.
The US and Pakistani governments recently issued a joint statement saying the road route through Pakistan was considered important to both of them, as well as to the NATO alliance.
About half of U.S. cargo is being taken out through Pakistan, with the remainder being removed by aircraft or a combination of planes and then ships at regional ports.
NATO cargo shipments across Pakistan have been disrupted in the past due to political strains.
Islamabad shut its border to coalition trucks for more than seven months after a U.S. helicopter accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops, reopening it in July 2012 after Washington apologised.
As of September, the Pentagon said it had to send home 24,000 vehicles and 20,000 shipping containers of equipment after more than 12 years of war.
Drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan but U.S. officials say they are an important tool in the fight against terror and have taken out dangerous al-Qaida militants.
While Pakistani officials publicly criticize the bombing campaign, the government is believed to have tacitly backed at least some of the strikes over the years.
Civilian deaths from America's covert drone operation have also proved contentious in Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai has demanded an end to civilian casualties before he agrees to sign a proposed 10-year security agreement with the United States.
Source: Agence France Presse
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