Australia will have to end its complicity in US drone attacks on civilians in Pakistan or face war crime accusations at the International Criminal Court, according to a Pakistani lawyer and rights campaigner.

Shahzad Akbar said Australia would face immediate scrutiny of its involvement in the ''targeted killings'' by drone missiles via the Pine Gap spy base in central Australia, revealed by Fairfax Media on Sunday.

"The Australian government has to appear to do the right thing": Pakistani lawyer and rights campaigner Shahzad Akbar says Australia should explain its role in US attacks on civilians in Pakistan. Credit:Eddie Jim

Speaking at a Monash University human rights conference in Melbourne on Friday, Mr Akbar said the Pakistan government would have no option but to pursue Australia at the international court and in the UN because it had been instructed to do so by a Pakistani High Court.

''Making this happen is my day and night work now,'' said Mr Akbar, director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, who represents more than 150 civilian victims of drone attacks.