March 13, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 9, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 12: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has said that keeping in view the fluid situation at the UN Security Council, Pakistan will take a decision at an appropriate time whether to abstain or vote against a new US resolution.

The minister speaking at a press conference on Wednesday said that the situation was at present uncertain and therefore Islamabad could not take a decision before time.

He, however, pointed out that Pakistan had adopted a principled stand of not supporting war on Iraq.

“I believe the situation is so confusing and uncertain that there might not be any voting in the Security Council,” he said.

He regretted that a spokesman of the ruling PML-Q had told some foreign news agencies on Tuesday that Pakistan had decided to abstain from voting in the Security Council. “Unless any thing is coming from some government functionary, you should avoid publishing stories on Iraq,” the minister advised the reporters.

Responding to a question, he said that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had rejected the idea of war. “We will not support any move that creates problems for Iraqi Muslims,” Mr Ahmad said.

Denying Osama bin Laden’s arrest or his presence in Pakistan, the information minister said that foreign journalists were briefed by the officials of a security agency. “They invited foreign reporters on my initiative, but I regret that some people did not do the correct reporting.”

Mr Ahmad said that since the security agencies could not defend themselves in public, extreme care should be exercised over the issue.

He also denied the arrest of two sons of Osama bin Laden. “The government does not have any clue about Osama bin Laden and all we can say is that he is not in our country. But all concerned government agencies were fully alert to get hold of him and his associates,” the minister assured.

About the Legal Framework Order, he said that the LFO had become a part of the Constitution and the opposition should realize it. “But we have not closed our doors for dialogue on the LFO,” he said, adding that the prime minister had authorized PML- Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to contact opposition leaders and hold talks.