Droning on PML-N chief and incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has finally found his voice to condemn the US drone strike that killed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) number two Waliur Rehman along with some TTP commanders, albeit through a ‘close aide’ who spoke to US Charge d’ Affaires Richard Hoagland. The message delivered was: Nawaz expressed his serious concern and deep disappointment at the strike within days of US President Barack Obama’s ‘crossroads’ speech in which he had outlined a new policy of care, caution and restraint in the use of drones. Nawaz categorised the drone strike as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and of international law and the UN Charter. The desired course, the prime minister-elect said, was meaningful consultations and close cooperation between the two countries rather than unilateral actions. Nawaz Sharif stressed the US must exercise restraint and “give peace a chance”. The latter phrase may be reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s, but that is where the resemblance ends. The situation of the struggle against terrorism in Pakistan is an entirely different kettle of fish. ‘Unilateralism’ has crept into the equation over the years since the US began to suspect the Pakistani intelligence community of being involved in tipping off targets mutually agreed. The Osama bin Laden raid was the acme of such unilateralism, in which the Pakistani defence forces were caught by surprise. Changing tack, the CIA has relied more (including in the bin Laden affair) o local sources of information rather than the Pakistani intelligence community. In the case of Waliur Rehman too, there are reports he was identified by a local tip-off, although Washington continues to refuse to confirm Waliur Rehman’s death officially, while being non-committal on whether the local informant would be in line for a Rewards for Justice programme payoff. Newly inducted Chief Minister Pervez Khattak of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) in his maiden speech from the floor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly echoed Nawaz Sharif’s sentiments. He said the federal government should formulate a clear policy on drones and the war on terror, and the PTI-led government in KP would support it. The sub-text in Khattak’s message was, stop the drone attacks, leave the war on terror, which the PTI characterises as a foreign-imposed war, forgetting conveniently the history of terrorism in Pakistan that predates by decades the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, an event the PTI singles out as being responsible for all our troubles with terrorism to the exclusion of all other historical facts. While admitting that the KP government could not end the drone strikes since this was within the purview of the federal government alone, Pervez Khattak repeated his leader Imran Khan’s partisan formulation that ‘innocent’ Pakhtuns were being killed by drones. He then went on to indulge in some bluster, claiming that if the PTI had been in power at the Centre, the US would not have ‘dared’ conduct drone strikes. With respect, methinks the chief minister exaggerates his own and his party’s room for manouevre vis-à-vis the US. As to the ‘innocence’ of Waliur Rehman and those killed with him, the redoubtable commander’s track record speaks of a series of attacks on genuinely innocent people, such as his masterminding the Marriott Hotel Islamabad attack on September 2008, in which 50 totally innocent and uninvolved people were killed. He is also accused of running a gang in Karachi that carries out bank robberies and kidnappings for ransom to swell the TTP’s coffers. If such a person is the ‘innocent’ Pakhtun Pervez Khattak has in mind, he needs to think again. Meanwhile US Secretary of State John Kerry has defended drone strikes as legal, since the US is at war with al Qaeda and the Taliban. He cited the right of self-defence as a last resort to justify Washington’s continuing with the increasingly controversial use of unmanned aerial vehicles delivering their lethal loads silently and with devastating effect. Since Mr Kerry is about to embark on a visit to Pakistan once the new government is in place, this will no doubt be at the top of the agenda for discussion. Only if Nawaz Sharif can convince Washington that either Pakistan has better alternatives to drone attacks or is able to promise the Pakistan army will deal with the conglomeration of terrorists in FATA will his pleas for a cessation of drone attacks and ‘close cooperation’ be likely to be heeded. However, scepticism on his ability to deliver on either of these assurances is shared by many in Pakistan too, not only in Washington.