January 31, 2003	Friday	Ziqa’ad 27, 1423

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LAHORE, Jan 30: Some three dozen parties from all shades of opinion, representatives of lawyers and journalists and human rights bodies on Thursday demanded of the government to immediately adopt proactive measures for defending the sovereignty of Iraq by mobilising the OIC and the UN Security Council to persuade the US to desist from attacking Iraq.

In a four-page declaration adopted at the end of a day-long all-party conference organized by the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, the participants demanded of the government to put its foreign policy before parliament for debate, “and explain to the nation why there has been such a disastrous erosion of national sovereignty.”

The ARD, the MMA, the Pakistan Bar Council, the Punjab Bar Council, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, two factions of the PFUJ, and many parties outside the fold of the two major opposition alliances participated in the conference.

PML-N acting President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi presided over the APC in the absence of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan who, being exhausted due to overwork during the past few days, stayed at a room of the hotel where the conference was held.

However, he read the joint declaration to the press at the end of the APC.

It was decided that the ARD would hold a demonstration on the Iraq issue in front of the Punjab Assembly on Friday. Leaders of the MMA would participate in it.

Then the MMA would organize demonstrations after Friday prayers and the ARD leaders and activists would join them.

The declaration demanded that the government should adopt independent economic policies and break shackles of the IMF, which are responsible for the “disaster of national economy”.

The declaration also demanded that Gen Pervez Musharraf should leave the office of the army chief and respect the constitutional provisions regarding the election of president.