December 24, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 8, 1422

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QUETTA, Dec 23: Jamat-i-Islami acting chief Liaquat Baloch has said that “foreign-imposed” interim setup in Kabul will not succeed in brining permanent peace and stability to Afghanistan.

“An imposed setup cannot restore complete peace and order in a country, where various armed groups are struggling for capturing maximum power and area”, he said, while speaking to newsmen at the Quetta Press Club here on Sunday.

Mr Baloch claimed that the interim setup did not comprise “real” representatives of Afghanistan and would collapse soon. “Another civil war cannot be ruled out in Afghanistan as various groups are still armed and different warlords have their own armed militia.”

The JI leader said a “real” representative government could defuse “the civil war” situation, and claimed that the Bonn conference had been held to divide the country in different parts on ethnic basis and bring about a permanent civil war in it.

Despite installing its own government in Kabul, he said, US warplanes had not stopped bombing on Afghanistan and even supporters of the interim setup were being targeted.

Mr Baloch termed the United States a big terrorist state, which, he said, had killed thousands of Afghan people in continuous bombing on the civilian population.

He was of the view that the military government’s Afghan policy had weakened Pakistan’s strategic position in the region and that India was trying to exploit that position.

He, however, warned India that religious and other parties would extend full cooperation and support to the government and would fight jointly against India’s possible aggression.

“(The) whole Pakistani nation is united for the defence of its motherland”, Mr Baloch said, adding that every Pakistani would fulfil its responsibility in case of Indian aggression.

“Musharraf has become a controversial and unpopular ruler of the country due to his wrong policies”, he observed and demanded that the president resign accepting his mistake regarding the Afghan policy and hand over power to an interim government for holding free and fair election.

He also demanded that leaders of religious parties, including Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, be released immediately and cases registered against them be withdrawn.

He declared that his party would attend the All Parties Conference convened by Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan on Dec 27.