March 23, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 19, 1424

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FAISALABAD, March 22: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman has claimed that the National Assembly session was got adjourned by treasury benches deliberately to avoid a joint resolution over the Iraq crisis.

The MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly was speaking at a meeting at the Jinnah Garden here on Saturday. The meeting was attended by workers of religious parties and people belonging to all walks of life.

He said that demonstrations and protest rallies would be organized throughout the country for condemning the US-led aggression on Iraq.

“Iraq has no network of Taliban or Al Qaeda. It has no weapons of mass destructions. The US attacked Iraq to capture its oil wealth. We are ready to launch Jihad against American forces but there is no way to reach Iraq. The MMA would continue its support to Iraq,” he maintained.

The government, Fazlur Rahman alleged, had failed to act on Iraq crisis according to the wishes of the people. This can be judged from the fact that no condemnable resolution against the US invasion on Iraq has not so far been presented before parliament.

He alleged that it was shameful that despite the capture of Afghanistan and attack on Iraq, Pakistani bases were still in use of American forces.

The former provincial minister and PML-N MNA, Sahibzada Fazal Karim, said in a statement that emergent session of the United Nations should be called for cancellation of membership of the United Sates.

Meanwhile, the Faisalabad District Bar Association said on Saturday it would observe strike on March 24 to express resentment over the US attack on Iraq.

The decision was taken at a DBA presided over by its president. It was decided to call the general council meeting on Monday to decide future line of action and holding protest demonstrations in the city.

MURDER CASE: Mamukanjan police registered on Saturday a double murder case against 11 people, including parents of a girl.

Shakeela, the daughter of labourer Zahoor Ahmad, reportedly eloped with Babar Husain, the son of landlord Mulazam Husain, of Chak 508-GB. Their parents failed to trace them despite all out efforts. Residents of the area found two badly decomposed bodies form outside the village a couple of days ago and informed the police. They were identified as Shakeela and Babar who were axed to death.

The parents of the girl in their preliminary statements before area police claimed that relatives of Babar had murdered them and threw their bodies in the fields. Babar’s parents refuted this claim. On Saturday, area police on the report of Babar’s uncle Maqbool registered a murder case against Shakeela’s father Zahoor and her relatives Ali Sher, Jahangir, Sharif, Suleman, Sadiq, Murad, Afzal, Ayub, Mastan Bibi and Hajiran Bibi.