Pakistan's Supreme Court may ban NATO supply

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to permanently ban NATO supply to Afghanistan through Pakistan, Press TV reports. Barrister Zafarullah filed the petition in the Supreme Court, Lahore Registry on Wednesday. In his petition, he said that the government is consulting with its coalition partners and other political parties to restore NATO supply route under US pressure. The petition said that the resumption of NATO supply will increase terrorism in Pakistan and it should be banned. Meanwhile, the government has also failed to convince Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulama-e- Islam, to reconsider his stance over restoration of NATO supply lines. During a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, Rehman refused to extend his support to the government for opening the NATO supply line to Afghanistan. Last November, Islamabad closed the routes after an unauthorized US airstrike killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border. Pakistan also shut the southwestern Shamsi airbase to the US forces. Since 2001 when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US on the so-called war against terrorism, more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of bombings and other militant attacks, according to local media.