January 24, 2003	Friday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: The US registration law is not going to change and as such Pakistan needs to evolve a strategy to ensure Pakistani expatriates are not discriminated against.

Former minister of state for foreign affairs, Inamul Haq, while speaking at a seminar titled “Registration and its implications on the Pakistani community”, and organized by the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), said that every country “enjoys the right to take measures for its internal security.”

The registration should not be projected as a war between Islam and Christianity, he said. “Such kind of immaturity is not in our interest,” he emphasized.

The participants also asked for calling an all-parties conference, meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and an in-camera session of parliament to take the people into confidence about the implications of the registration issue.

They also emphasized the need of sensitizing the Pakistani community about the law.

The PML-Q announced that it will send a party delegation to the US to meet Pakistani people living there.

The seminar was told that all the countries requiring visa to enter US would be covered under the law by the end of 2005.

Mr Inamul Haq said there was no weight in the argument that since Pakistan acted as the front-line state in the war against terrorism therefore it should not be included in the list.

“We need to be extremely careful as relationship with US was in favour of Pakistan. We need friends and cannot afford to live in isolation,” he said. More than 100,000 Pakistani expatriates who have not acquired legal status would be affected and Pakistan would suffer economically if they were deported, he feared.

Mr Haq said that “we should behave as a responsible nation” and “should not be carried away” by the statements of many leaders threatening US citizens with harassment here.

He suggested that Pakistan should also consider enacting similar laws. Senior Vice-President of the PML-Q, Iftikhar Gillani, said the government should request the US government to take Pakistani government on board in the registration process.

Prof Ghafoor Ahmad demanded that the FBI agents leave Pakistan.