March 21, 2003	Friday	Muharram 17, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 20: The Pakistan People’s Party on Thursday said that the US-led war against Iraq was “unjustified” and without legal sanctity, but it was not a “clash of civilizations.”

PPP leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a press conference at the party’s media office that his party believed that it was not a “crusade” or war between Muslims and non-Muslims. It a war of interests, he said.

He urged the government to take a clear stand about the doctrine of preemption, under which the attack was being justified, and said the neighbouring might try to take advantage of it.

He said that his party did not hold protest demonstrations because it did not want to annoy the opponents of war in the United States by burning its flags.

He alleged that the government had taken an ambiguous stand on the Iraq issue and instead of providing leadership to the Muslim Ummah, it took an apologetic stance.

He said the National Assembly had started debate on the issue after an agreement between the treasury and the opposition that the session would continue till Friday, but the government got it prorogued.

He said the session was dragged till late night so that the assembly could be prorogued on the basis of lack of quorum.

He said the opposition wanted that the NA pass a joint resolution. A draft of the resolution was shown to the foreign minister which would have given a good signal to the world, he said.

He said the foreign minister’s statement in the National Assembly was outdated.

He said the country would face disastrous effects of the war and the government was not taking into consideration the impact of the increase in prices of petroleum products, specially diesel, which had gone beyond Rs26 per litre.

He lamented that an official had stated that he wished Pakistan was not a member of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr Qureshi said the war imposed on Iraq was unjustified, illegitimate and contrary to the world’s public opinion. He said the war was imposed when diplomacy had started working.

He said the PPP believed that Iraq should be disarmed peacefully.

The PPP leader said the war had eroded the authority of the UN.

He said that if the pretext of the war being waged to get rid of the regime there, there would be no end to that.

He said Europe had seen the devastation of the two world wars and the dividend of peace in the last 50 years.