ISPU report calls Obama Administration to re-evaluate drone attacks policy

Lahore, Jan 27 (ANI): A US-based foreign policy research organisation has called on President Barack Obama's Administration to re-evaluate its drone attacks policy for the Pakistan Tribal Areas after consensus emerged among foreign policy experts that FATA poses the greatest security challenge to the US.

"The American drone attacks policy needs a serious re-evaluation, as ... it has fuelled, rather than quenched, the insurgency. A commission of experts for evaluating past American policy in FATA and its effectiveness should probe this issue in depth," says a report by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU).

The report authored by ISPU fellow Hassan Abbas and titled "President Obama's Policy Options in FATA" outlines steps for both the Pakistani Government and the US Administration to deal with the unrest in the Tribal Areas.

In the process of devising a new FATA strategy, the report calls on the US to engage with 100,000 Pashtun-Americans.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's traditional friends like China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia should be involved in developing a cohesive development policy for FATA and NWFP, the report says.

It says the Obama Administration should also consider 'repairing' the US image among Pakistanis.

It says that at least 50 percent of American counter-terrorism funds must be redirected towards the capacity building of Pakistan's law-enforcement and civilian investigation agencies.

In a bid to stabilise the region, the report says the US should help India, Pakistan and Afghanistan reconcile differences.

The author of the report also proposes more US scholarships for Pakistanis and American investment in Pakistan's publishing industry.

For Pakistan, the report says, "FATA should be fully incorporated into Pakistan by scrapping the Frontier Crimes Regulation [as a federating unit]." It also calls for the abolishment of the seven FATA agencies. (ANI)