LAHORE – A petition has been submitted to the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the Americans from getting further 18 acres of land over and above the 38 acres already acquired by them, for expansion of the US Embassy in Islamabad.
The petitioners, Watan Party and Barrister Zafarullah Khan, have also urged the Apex Court to prevent the Americans from hiring as many as 250 offices in Islamabad and that no diplomatic mission may be allowed to get on lease or through sale land more than the requirement of the diplomatic mission. It has also been sought that the Pakistan government be asked to fulfil their responsibility towards providing security to the diplomatic missions as per international law. The petitioners have further urged the court for directing the government that surveillance of all communications and monitoring of all kind of telecommunication services may be stopped forthwith.
The petitioners argue that contrary to the trend, set by the age of communication, of cutting down the staff, America is extraordinarily enhancing the presence of its staff in Islamabad, which may also include 1000 marines with latest equipment, which may be a means to ‘bring us down on our knees’ and to ‘capture our nuclear facility’ so that Pakistan could get the same treatment America meted out to South Korea, Taiwan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The petitioners say America claims Pakistan was given $12 billion in the war on terror while Pakistan lost about $40 billion in the same war, besides the lives of thousands of its citizens. “As a nation we do not need their (American) money and presence of Marines and Blackwater and other unidentified US personnel in Islamabad or anywhere else in the country and they are not only a security risk for the whole of Pakistan and their immediate target could (also) be Dr Qadeer Khan,” the petitioners fear, claiming that America wishes to establish a base in this part of the world.
Opposing the alleged lease of extra land and hiring of houses by America in Islamabad, they said if it were allowed, it would amount to occupation of the whole nation. To support this point the petitioners have reminded that in 2005 America had disallowed drilling contract to a Chinese company on grounds of national security. Similarly sale of more land and hiring of houses for accommodation of Marines and Blackwater would be security risk to Pakistan, they allege.
The petitioners have also opposed lease of almost 88 thousand acres of land to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states for agricultural purposes, stating it would pave the way for ‘neo-colonialismÂ’ which stands for tapping resources of other countries for the personal benefits. By giving this land to local cultivators, it can be brought to the best use, the petitioners say, whole expressing a fear that the lease of land may present a similar picture to the one in the case of privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills – behind which the actual faces were not those who were in the front. All this, they say, amounts to selling out sovereignty of state in violation of the ‘UN resolution on permanent sovereignty over natural resources.Â’
The petitioners have also alleged that on the insistence of the Americans, the government has decided to monitor all telecommunication traffic in the country terming it a new strategy.
They say it is responsibility of the state to protect the life and liberty of the people and sovereignty of the state, but they would all now be jeopardized in the event of lease of land to the foreign missions.