KARACHI, March 24: Terming the ruthless bombardment on Iraqi civilians and damage to civic infrastructure by US-British forces ‘a barbaric act against humanity’, the City Council on Monday urged the UN secretary general to summon an emergency session of the Security Council to bring human sufferings to a halt.
Adopting a resolution unanimously, the 245-member house of the City Council, which met here on Monday with its Convener, Tariq Hassan Khan, in the chair, lashed out at the US and Britain for eliminating and maiming innocent men, women and children in Iraq and ravaging holy places, including Karbala, on the pretext of ‘disarming Saddam Hussain’ and destroying weapons of mass destruction.
Referring to the destruction of holy places, the resolution said that such acts had exposed the anti-Islam posture of the United States.
The resolution described the US-led invasion of Iraq as ‘a cowardly act’ and condemned the US and British forces for widespread bloodshed in various areas of Iraq. It observed that Iraqis had already been subjected to immense sufferings in the wake of sanctions imposed soon after the 1991 war.
Accusing the United States of pursuing a policy of ‘double standards’, the resolution noted that the US, claiming to be a champion of human rights, had waged a war against Iraq without the UN Security Council’s mandate and in defiance of the world opinion.
Condemning the US motto ‘might is right’, the resolution said the United States had proved that it was itself an international terrorist. It deplored that 300,000-strong US-UK forces had unleashed a rein of terror not in Iraq alone, but also in the neighbouring countries and the entire region.
The resolution observed that the allied forces were not only hitting military installations, but also bombarding civilian population, holy places and civic infrastructure in different Iraqi cities.
The City Council lamented that the United Nations had lost its effectiveness in the wake of naked aggression against Iraq and its innocent people. The resolution pointed out that the UN had failed to get its own resolutions implemented in Kashmir, Palestine, Bosnia, Chechenya and other Islamic countries where people were being subjected to worst kind of oppression for the past half century.
Emphasising the need for the Islamic countries to get rid of # American pressure and its acts of terrorism, the resolution appealed to the Muslim world to forge unity in its ranks.
If the Islamic states did not get united, it warned, the US would go ahead with its plan to invade and ravage each of them one after the other accusing them of possessing weapons of mass destruction.
The City Council decided to set up a committee of its member for presenting a memorandum to the ambassadors of US, Britain and other countries, as well as representative of the United Nations, urging them to play their due role in bringing an end to the US- led invasion of Iraq that had already resulted in a catastrophe.
The resolution was moved in the House by Siddiq Rathore and seconded by Akhlaqun Nabi, Saeed Ghani, Nasreen Anjum, Razzak Sangani and dozens of other members.
Earlier, a large number of members, in their speeches, appealed to the citizens to boycott US and UK-made goods and express solidarity with the oppressed people of Iraq who are faced with the worst kind of terrorism at the hands of the aggressive forces.
Those who took part in the debate included Shafi Ahmed, Nasimuddin, Muslim Pervaiz, Noor Hussain Jokhio, Faizunnisa, S. Raees Kazmi, Junaid Mukati, Nasreen Shamim, A. Rasheed, Habib Hassan, Razzak Khan and Sultan Bahadur.
