March 12, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 11: Religious parties on Tuesday asked the government to go further than abstaining from a United Nations Security Council vote on war on Iraq and cast an outright ‘no’ vote against military action.

“Pakistan as a member of the Security Council should boldly say no to any move for war,” Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, secretary-general of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam told AFP.

The cabinet decided unanimously late Monday to abstain from the vote, expected this week, on a draft resolution by the United States, Britain and Spain authorising military action, PML-Q senator Mushahid Hussain told AFP.

Pakistan is one of the council’s 10 rotating members and has resisted playing its card on how it would vote.

A senior official from the PML-Q said the decision was taken to avoid “a serious public backlash.”

Religious parties have led two massive rallies in the past 10 days against war on Iraq, drawing hundreds of thousands onto the streets.

“Pakistan is a nuclear power and a member of UN security council and it should have courage to say what millions of Pakistani have said during the protests in Karachi and Rawalpindi,” Mr Ahmed said.

“God has provided this opportunity to Pakistan. The whole Muslim world is pinning great hopes on us, so we should play our role instead of avoiding voting against the resolution.”

Abstention was not enough for the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, spokesman Shahid Shamsi said.

“The stand of the MMA is clear: it wants a big ‘no’ vote by Pakistan,” Mr Shamsi told AFP.