LAHORE, Dec 8: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has criticized Gen Pervez Musharraf for safeguarding US interests as a dictator.

Delivering Eid and Juma sermons at Mansoora, MMA parliamentary leader in the National Assembly and Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad said Gen Musharraf feared that after resigning as army chief, his position would weaken, rendering him unable to serve his European and US masters.

Referring to handing over of Aimal Kasi and Ramzi Yusuf to the US, he said Muslim rulers were serving the forces which were bent upon destroying Muslim countries. “These forces are targeting Iraq after Afghanistan and then they will turn to Saudi Arab, Iran and Pakistan,” he warned.

He said the rulers had gone so far in serving Washington that they had given a free hand to FBI to operate in Pakistan and pick anyone it suspected as damaging for the US interests, while in America the lives of Muslims were miserable as every Muslim there was being taken as terrorist.

If Washington and Europe were expressing their reservations over Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Russia and India were accusing it of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, he said.

Muslims were victims of atrocities in Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya while the rulers were spreading vulgarity among them through videos, TV and other media to kill their love for Jihad, he lamented.

He demanded that the government should restore Friday as weekly holiday. He rejected the argument that the reversal would hurt business interests as there was a difference of five to 10 hours between office timings in Pakistan, Europe and the USA.