And this is bad why?
The MMA acting president, Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad, has said the United States is likely to attack Pakistan and Gen Pervez Musharraf will not be able to counter the threat alone. "Gen Musharraf’s policies have endangered us, and it is not difficult to guess from Bush’s threatening speech that he is looking for an excuse to strike Pakistan," the Qazi told hundreds of participants in a week-long training session of his party here on Thursday. The situation, he said, demanded that the whole nation was united and cooperation of all parties sought. If Gen Musharraf did not do so, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Husain should come forward and do the job, he said.
The Qazi recalled that whenever the country was attacked in the past the Treasury and the Opposition had displayed exemplary unity. Criticizing the US president for the arrogance he had shown in his speech, he said the country needed national cohesion and harmony and it was the need of the hour to warn people of the impending dangers and formulate a strategy for countering the same. The exiled political leadership must also be included in the consultation process, the MMA leader stressed. He demanded that the whole nation must be taken into confidence while making policies and taking decisions because the country was not a jagir of army generals. He held Gen Musharraf responsible for the situation Pakistan was in. He alleged that the United States had been able to devastate Afghanistan only because Gen Musharraf gave it airbases, logistic support and vital information on the plea that this would save Pakistan. But, he regretted, the policy had endangered the country by eliminating chances of resistance on its western borders where Nato forces were ready to assault it under the garb of an operation for searching Osama bin Laden. The Indian army would be there on the eastern borders to encircle the country.
| "Infidels to the west of us! Infidels to the east of us! We're surrounded!" |
He said the nation had made sacrifices to generate $42 billion for its nuclear programme which, he said, was necessary for regional peace but the US was bent upon eliminating it. Answering a question, he said America created anarchy in a country before attacking it and MMA’s policy of uniting the army and the masses could avert this danger as Washington would dare not attack Pakistan if the nation was united.
Replying to another question, he said denials from Libya, Iran and Iraq to allegations that they secured nuclear technology from Pakistan had exposed the American lie. The lies Washington told regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had already shown that it could do anything to secure its interests. Answering a question about the 17th amendment, the Qazi denied the impression that by supporting it the MMA had provided a justification to Gen Musharraf to rule the country. "The MMA is against Gen Musharraf’s pro-US policies. It has neither signed any deal with the government nor secured any gains." He said had the religious alliance not entered into an agreement with the government to avert a constitutional crisis, the parliament would have been dissolved and martial law imposed. |