Petitions in U.S., U.K. to condemn Pakistan gain record support

October 03, 2016 03:13 am | Updated November 01, 2016 10:31 pm IST - WASHINGTON/LONDON:

An online White House petition seeking to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism has gained a record half a million signatures, five times the number needed to get a response from the Obama Administration.

The petition was created on September 21 by a person who identified himself by initials ‘RG’ and the petition needed 1,00,000 signatures in 30 days to get a response from the White House.

The benchmark was reached in less than a week, and in less than two weeks, the petition, which now appears to be popular on the White House website, has crossed half a million signatures.

Mandates govt. response The Obama Administration is expected to respond to the petition within 60 days.

Supporters of the “We the People ask the Administration to declare Pakistan, State Sponsor of Terrorism” petition have set a goal of one million signatures. “We will not stop until we get 1000,000 signatures,” wrote Anju Preet, a scientist at Georgetown University who is associated with the petition on her Facebook Page.

This comes after Congressman Ted Poe, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, introduced ‘H R 6069, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act’ in the House of Representatives.

Given that the window to sign the petition is open till October 21, the goal of one million signatures could well be achieved.

10,000 signatures in U.K Also, another petition filed on the official U.K. Parliament website, calling on Britain to “strongly condemn” Pakistan for providing a safe haven for terrorists, on Sunday crossed the threshold of 10,000 signatures, making it incumbent upon the U.K. government to respond to it.

The petition, titled ‘U.K. Govt. to strongly condemn Pakistan or providing safe haven for terrorists’, aims to gather as many as 1,00,000 signatures by the March 29, 2017 deadline so that the issue is considered for a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons.

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