Dr Haider Mehdi I do not care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We will protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it. Pakistans PM on drone attacks: WikiLeaks For Karim Khan, a Pakistani tribesman from North Waziristan, December 31, 2009, was doomsday. A covert US drone attacked his house and killed his son, brother and a local man. Torment, anguish, grief, sorrow and resentment have overcome him. If I have the means, I will take revenge for this attackwe need justice. We are innocent peopleWe are not terrorists. We are common citizens, Khan told a news conference where he and his lawyer Mirza Shehzad Akbar announced his plans to sue the US government. Akbar said that he will file a lawsuit in Pakistan and, if necessary, in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague: This is not a political case, this is a private complaint.We will file a lawsuit against the American government and CIA officials for $500 million compensation. Bravo, Karim Khan An appropriate step in the right direction. But this private complaint must now be transformed into a constitutional-political movement. There should be thousands of such lawsuits filed in Pakistan and the ICJ from every household which has been hit by American drones. Concurrently, the civil societys constitutional-political movement needs to go a step further: the President, PM and the COAS, all three top decision-makers, should be named in hundreds of lawsuits in the Supreme Court of Pakistan for their role: their alleged compliance and implicit approval of the US drone attacks against this nations innocent people. Let us be politically correct: unless the civil society in Pakistan moves forward to constitutionally-legally contain the drone warfare and raises this issue as an illegitimate aerial-military campaign in violation of international laws at global forums, including the ICJ, the invisible American killing machines, war strategy and global-political agenda will ultimately descend upon us as the final demolition of our nationhood. The moment has arrived to do something urgent and nationwide to respond to US military atrocities inside the territory of this country, subversion of international laws and its nihilistic political agenda against this country. Unfortunately and ironically, the facts are, as we all know now, that the political dispensation and its top decision-makers are hand-in-glove with the enemies of the state and its people. Unless the real power-holders in Islamabad know something better than the majority of people in this country, the writing is on the wall: the political managers entrusted with the destiny of this nation are completely out of sync with what ails Pakistan, who is responsible for the political mess around us and what the remedies of the national problematics are. The political leadership in Pakistan is supposed to resolve the nations problems; instead, it has become a major problem in itself. A political, linguistic analysis of the PMs statement on WikiLeaks reveals the political-moral insensitivities, dictatorial indiscretions and above-parliamentary rules of our national political managers in the conduct of national affairs. First and foremost, this statement reveals the governments full compliance with the US drone attacks inside Pakistans territory, which they have denied time and again. Second, this statement indicates that the war on terror is Pakistans own war - a view which is an egregiously inaccurate portrayal of the entire history of this war, and opposed by a vast majority inside Pakistan. Third, this statement undisputedly sheds light on the hypocrisy, deceit and complete lack of moral diplomacy and political bankruptcy of this administrations perspective on the fundamentals of parliamentary democracy. Fourth, this statement shows the incredible level of criminal apathy towards the loss of life of innocent Pakistani citizens and the moral and emotional resentment this war breeds in the hearts and minds of the people. So, the top PPP leadership has pushed this illegitimate, unlawful and undemocratic political campaign to its ultimate limits. Consider the enormity of our national democratic crisis: Zardari wishes his sister to replace him as President if he is ousted and advises his children to always remember that they were born to rule this country. The injudicious infringement on national pride and its political-democratic-moral consciousness in this context is that the President confides his wish to a top diplomat of a foreign power that is already involved in a war against this nation and is in the process of accelerating it to a full-fledged military conflict. Amazingly, the countrys top civilian political managers criminal apathy towards the nations suffering is mind-boggling and is aptly demonstrated in the leaked memo of Pakistans Ambassador in Washington DC: the President has agreed to an expanded role of drones and US Special Forces in Pakistan just so that his official visit to the US can materialise, completely ignoring the havoc that the activities of the US Special Forces are going to inflict on its cities and citizens all over the country. As an individual citizen of this country, just like any other citizen, Kayani has a legitimate right to form his personal opinion of political issues, but I believe the entire nation has been hurt by the General identifying his own man for the countrys top civilian position and confiding this to a foreign diplomat. Indeed, the nation is justified in wanting the COAS to be more scrupulous and politically correct in playing a role as an important actor in the affairs of the nation. The COAS would be well advised not to accompany the President on his official visit to the US next year, as this would most certainly tarnish the armys image which he has laboured so hard to restore. However, the nation will have to accept the ground realities in Pakistan - the army is, has always been and will continue to be a major partner in its national political landscape - until and unless an able, competent, democratic and honest civilian leadership brings about a political renaissance in this countrys political culture. How about giving Imran Khan a chance? Truth must be faced, as Albert Schweitzer, the Franco-German philosopher said. Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always. The nation has been betrayed. The deception is obvious. Credibility has been lost. It is the hour of truth Will the PM resign now, kindly and obligingly? Will the President quit now? For Karim Khan, Ahmad Fraz had already lamented against all such atrocities: (Oh meray dost) mera dil lahoo lahoo ha magar, Moaf kar kay teray dushmano kay saath hai hum, Tera janoo tera isar mohtaram lakin, Jo sach kahoo to teray qatilo kay saath hai hum. Pakistans political elite must stop dancing with devils. The writer is a professor, political analyst and conflict-resolution expert Email: hl_mehdi@hotmail.com