Drone attacks

Published December 18, 2013

THIS is apropos Irfan Husain’s article, ‘A CIA agent’s take on drones’ (Dec 14). I am not sure what the writer meant by mentioning the CIA agent in Pakistan who has been selling blood of his own people for a mere $200 a month. What should one expect from someone selling the motherland for $200?

If it is our war, then what’s the justification for CIA agents to operate from our soil providing intelligence to the US? It gives strength to the notion that the CIA is waging a secret war on our soil through its network of spies.

Regardless of numbers, isn’t the loss of one innocent life, one too many? A whole family or clan gets affected and sucked into a blood feud with the state.

Regarding the misconception that none of Pakistan’s laws apply to Fata, the writer ignored the fact that it is the government of Pakistan that is still governing Fata through a colonial set of laws introduced by the British in 1901 to counter Pakhtun opposition to their rule.

Little has been done since then to integrate Fata into Pakistan. Not integrating and extending the writ of the state to Fata is due to the administrative arrangements of the state of Pakistan.

There is practically no writ of the government in Lyari and various other parts of the country. Should we drone those areas too?

Taqveem A. Siddiqui
London

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