January 30, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 26,1423

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LAHORE, Jan 29: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Wednesday asked the government to raise the Iraq issue before the UN Security Council and use all other possible avenues to avert a war the US president was bent upon imposing on Iraq despite the fact that the UN weapons inspectors had found no evidence of the Islamic country having weapons of mass destruction.

After a meeting of the ARD components at the residence of PML-N leader Tehmina Daultana, ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said that the world body should be explained that war was not the solution to any problem and it would fail to bring any positive results in the case of Iraq like it had been unsuccessful in solving the Afghanistan problem.

It was regrettable, he said, that the US president had identified Iran as his country’s possible target after Iraq.

The Baghdad government had extended full cooperation to the UN weapons inspectors after which there was no justification for the US to think of attacking Iraq, the Nawabzada said.

He said the ARD was of the view that the US should give weight to the IAEA director-general’s opinion on the subject.

He said the ARD would hold a demonstration on Friday as a mark of protest against the aggressive US designs against Iraq.

He denied the impression that the PPP’s thinking about Iraq was different from that of the ARD.

The Nawabzada said the opposition alliance asked the government to allow former prime ministers Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto to return home to lead their respective parties. The election results, he said, had re-established that both the leaders enjoyed massive support.

He said cases against these leaders should be withdrawn. The ARD chief said the government had already withdrawn cases against several leaders who had changed loyalties. Unfortunately, he said, the NAB laws were being used only against leaders who had refused to give in to government pressure.

Refusing to accept the LFO as part of the Constitution, the Nawabzada said the package of constitutional amendments given by Gen Musharraf amounted to subverting the basic law. The ARD legislators would continue their struggle against this unconstitutional act, he said.

Replying to a question, the ARD president said the PML-Jinnah would be asked to explain whether it accepted the LFO as part of the Constitution.

The party is cooperating with the government at present, but the Nawabzada said no action could be taken against it unless it was given an opportunity to come up with its point of view.

He expressed the hope that the situation would become clear by the next session of the alliance, for which no date has been set.

The ARD also approved the agenda for an all-party conference to be held here on Thursday.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Saranjaam Khan, Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Qasim Zia, Malik Hakimeen Khan, Munir Ahmed Khan, Abdul Qadir Shaheen, Hasil Bizenjo, Khuda-i-Noor, Naveed Malik, Manzoor Gilani, Munir Gilani, Pir Nau Behar Shah, Saifullah Saif, Joseph Francis, Nawaz Gondal, Amanullah Khan, Besharat Mirza, Qazi Abdul Qadeer Khamosh, Mian Waheed, Malik Akram Khokhar and Mufti Ferozuddin Hazarvi were among the participants.