KARACHI: Protesters call for boycott of American, British goods
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, March 2: Thousands of participants of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal rally, named million march, resolved on Sunday to boycott American, British and Israeli goods and franchise outlets in Pakistan and warned the government against toeing the US line.
Speaking at the rally at Tibet Centre on M. A. Jinnah Road, the chairman of the MMA, Senator-elect Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, called upon the parliament to reject the government’s pro-US policies and demanded that the US forces be asked to vacate the bases they had been provided in the country since the Afghanistan situation.
He made it clear to the government that the people would not allow the Americans to use Pakistan’s soil for aggression against Iraq or any Muslim country.
He praised the decision of the Turkish parliament which rejected the American offer for allowing bases and facilities against Iraq, and asked the Pakistani rulers to learn a lesson from their Turkish brethren.
He appreciated the spirit of the Karachiites and assured that the MMA would remain in the forefront of the struggle against all conspiracies against Pakistan and the Ummah.
The Secretary-General of the MMA, Maulana Fazalur Rahman, dubbed the Bush administration as aggressor which was determined to destroy the world peace.
He claimed the US aggression against the Taliban government in Afghanistan was not against Osama Bin Laden but was aimed at grabbing the resources of the Muslim world. Now the US was aiming to repeat its performance in Iraq to get hold of oil and other resources of the Arab world. Action against Saddam Hussein was nothing but a ruse.
Maulana Fazalur Rahman said the people of Pakistan would not allow their soil to be used for attack on Iraq or any other Muslim country. He was all praise for France, Germany and Belgium for taking a courageous stand against US policies. He declared that attack on Iraq would be considered an attack on the entire Muslim Ummah.
He cautioned President Musharraf against allying himself with the US and said he should not act against the wishes of the people who were against his pro-Bush policies.
Criticizing Pakistan’s foreign policy, Maulana Fazal said it was not in conformity with the people’s aspirations. He demanded that in the Security Council Pakistan should reject the American resolution.
He said if the government did not act according to the people’s aspirations, they would not escape the wrath of the people. He believed that today’s rally was more than three million strong.
Qazi Husain Ahmed, the Vice President of the MMA, bitterly criticized the US’s aggressive policies against the Muslim world and rejected allegations of terrorism levelled against Muslims.
Criticizing the Musharraf regime’s policies, he said if Pakistan voted for the US resolution or abstained it would not be acceptable to the people of Pakistan.
He warned that after Iraq men like President Bush will target Saudi Arabia, Iran and then Pakistan. He said if the government remains allied and subservient to the US, the day is not far when Washington will put Islamabad in a Iraq-like situation and use similar methods to compel us to destroy nuclear capability.
Earlier, Maulana Samiul Haq said the rally was a referendum against the government’s policies of capitulating on Afghanistan and its pro-American policies.
He demanded of the Muslim countries, where the US had its bases, to get them vacated and not to allow the US to use them against Iraq or any other Muslim country. He was also appreciative of the French stand and asked Russia and China to reject the US resolution in the Security Council.
He also criticized the government for arresting an allegedly leading Al Qaeda activist in Rawalpindi and slammed the free hand given to the FBI to mount operations in Pakistan.
Prof Sajid Meer, Allama Hasan Turabi and Imdad Chandio also criticized the Bush administration’s aggressive policies on Iraq and vowed to remain steadfast against such designs.
Air Marshal Asghar Khan also criticized American policies as a result of which more than half a million people in Iraq had died during the past decade.
Mairaj Mohammed Khan criticized US policies and called for a boycott of US and British goods and also a boycott of their franchise outlets in Pakistan.
Rejecting the US claim that Iraqi weapons were a threat to world peace, he pointed out that the biggest concentrations of such weapons were in the US, Britain and Israel, so these countries were a real threat to world peace. He cautioned the government against remaining aligned to the US and said when Pakistan was in trouble and being dismembered it never came to our support.
He deplored Washington’s war hysteria against Iraq.
KARACHI, March 2: Thousands of participants of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal rally, named million march, resolved on Sunday to boycott American, British and Israeli goods and franchise outlets in Pakistan and warned the government against toeing the US line.
