March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 10: Pakistan’s vote in the UN Security Council on the Iraq issue would be based on principle and would be exercised in the national interest, the foreign office said on Monday.

Spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan, when pressed repeatedly at his regular weekly briefing to state the government’s position on the second Anglo-US resolution, told reporters that Pakistan’s position would be spelt out by the country’s permanent representative to the UN at the time of voting in the Security Council

However, the spokesman maintained that as a matter of its time-honoured principle, Pakistan sought resolution of disputes through peaceful means and wanted that peace be given a maximum chance (before resort to war). He said there was an opportunity in the UN inspectors’ reports on efforts to search for proscribed arms in Iraq. This could enable continuation of the disarmament process and of the work of the inspectors, which was proceeding satisfactorily, in the interest of a peaceful resolution of the problem.

Mr Khan announced that Afghan leader Hamid Karzai would be guest of honour at the Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad on March 23. He confirmed that Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali would pay an official visit to the United States beginning March 26 at the invitation of President George Bush.

Mr Jamali will be in Washington from March 26 to 28 and will be President Bush’s luncheon guest at the White House on March 28.

Mr Khan said the prime minister will also visit Houston and New York after March 28 from where he will depart from the United States on April 1.

The dates for Mr Jamali’s visits to China and Iran were being finalized, the spokesman said when asked when would the prime minister go to these two states in response to their invitations.

Most of the half-an-hour long news briefing was consumed by a spate of questions from local and foreign reporters, who had turned out in larger numbers than usual, about Pakistan’s anticipated vote in the Security Council on the Iraq resolution and “joint” armed forces operations seeking to nab Osama bin Laden.

Mr Khan manoeuvred to evade and avoid most of the questions from the inquisitive newsmen by confining himself to “diplomatically phrased” answers offered time and again but leaving the questioners no wiser than before. So far as questions about Osama and operations to seek out wanted Al Qaeda men were concerned, the spokesman referred reporters to the interior ministry or Inter-Services Public Relations.

On Iraq, the spokesman said while they should wait till the actual voting in the Security Council to know which way Pakistan would vote, he emphasized that the country’s vote would be based on principle.

The spokesman denied that Pakistan ever took part in “joint operations” in their hunt for Al Qaeda fugitives inside Pakistan or Afghanistan and asserted that Pakistan had confined its hunt for wanted terrorists to its own national frontiers, including the tribal areas.

In reply to another question, he said the prompt decision to join the international coalition in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, was quite different from the issue at stake in Iraq. However, he affirmed that as a signatory to the UN Charter, Pakistan would respect and uphold all UN resolutions.

The spokesman said Pakistan would oppose efforts to build a Hindu temple at the site of the Babri Masjid and hoped that the Indian supreme court which was seized of the issue of the mosque’s demolition by Hindu zealots and fundamentalists would undo the wrong and order reconstruction of the mosque at the site.

Answering another question, the spokesman said Pakistan and Iran would maintain their excellent brotherly relations, and Iran’s relations with a third country would not ever be able to stand in the way of bilateral ties.

He said Pakistan hoped that most of the Pakistani detainees in the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba would soon regain freedom. About 68 Pakistanis detained in the centre were permitted some time ago by the US administration to be interviewed by a team of Pakistani investigators who sought release of most of them. It was expected that the US authorities would accept Pakistan’s request.