PESHAWAR: Many among the members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly were a happy lot when the House unanimously adopted a resolution on Monday last against drone strikes and Nato supplies.

After hours of intense back to back contacts between the ruling and opposition alliances, the provincial assembly produced a resolution that can at best be regarded as a breather, an attempt to shift responsibility to the federal government.

The resolution fell short of what Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan had promised to the nation in his reaction to the Nov 1 drone strike that eliminated Hakeemullah Mehsud and some of his close associates.

Mr Khan had stated that the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would stop Nato supplies and the assembly would adopt a resolution that would have never been adopted before, and in doing so if the party had to lose the provincial government it would not budge from blocking the supplies.

Now what we have is the resolution that demands of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to formulate actionable recommendations by Nov 20 for stopping drone strikes and Nato supplies. So for now, the ball is in Mr Sharif’s court.

While the resolution sets Nov 20 as deadline for formulating the recommendations, it does not set a deadline for stopping the supplies and American strikes by a specific date. It means the prime minister has the flexibility to decide the timeframe for stopping, if he may choose to block, drone strikes and Nato supplies.

The resolution has done some favour to the previous governments as well.

It is a document by which the majority PTI and its coalition government partners have offered a veiled appreciation to peace efforts made in the past and the parliamentary resolutions adopted against drone strikes in 2008 and 2011.

This is not what many were promised to come in the resolution: appreciation and acknowledgement of the efforts made in past. However, without accommodating other political forces PTI could not have managed to pass a unanimous resolution from the House.

Being described by some as a much watered down resolution than what was expected after PTI chief’s public pronouncements, the joint resolution is a reflection of PTI provincial leadership’s obligations towards the party chief and the tough ground realities it has to wade through a complex parliamentary politics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PTI’s provincial leadership wanted a unanimous resolution from the assembly, which could not have been possible without the support of opposition parties, which is a complex mix of parties with right and right of centre politics.

The orthodox Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), PTI’s main rival in its claim to the throne in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, wanted the ruling alliance to include two of its demands in the resolution: strike down American drones in Pakistani territory and close down US consulate in Peshawar. The right wing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, with its government in centre, could not have supported anything too tough in wording and irrational in nature. It resisted incorporating demands for instant blockade of Nato supplies. Its leader in the provincial assembly, according to sources, sternly rejected the idea, by one of his party members, to demand of the federal government to strike down drones in Pakistani territory.

The party was also against Nov 20 deadline for stopping Nato supplies. What we have now is a deadline that asks the federal government to finalise recommendations by Nov 20 for stopping the supplies.

The other two opposition parties, including Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party, devoid of anything at stake in the given situation were in favour of the PTI government blocking the supplies by issuing an executive order.

Then there were others from among the PTI allies and its legal brains who opposed the idea of provincial government acting unilaterally to stop Nato supplies via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Senior provincial minister Sikander Hayat Sherpao, a leader of Qaumi Watan Party that makes part of the four-party coalition government, was heard telling an associate that stoppage of Nato supplies by the provincial government would amount to a treason, a violation of Article 6 of the Constitution.

Similar opinion was put forth by the government’s principal law officer, advocate general. More than one senior government functionary told Dawn that the advocate general elaborated the point explicitly to the ruling alliance leaders. They were told it would be beyond the provincial government’s legal authority to stop Nato supplies since these were covered under the federal government’s international agreements.

However, after hours of behind the scene intense politicking sanity prevailed and it took the assembly only 10 minutes to present and unanimously adopt the resolution following which the session was prorogued.

Political compulsions of the PTI-led ruling alliance in the backdrop of PTI chief’s public pronouncements, and the difficult spot in which PML-N found itself for being in power at the centre forced the two sides to agree to a common minimum ground that, for the time being, has pushed the matter under the carpet.

“We told them one of you has the government at the centre and the other in the province then what is stopping you from instantly stopping Nato supplies; go for it and we are with you,” an ANP MPA said, when contacted.