April 1, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 28, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 31: Senators from the treasury and opposition benches on Monday called for sending humanitarian aid to Iraq.

On the third day of a prolonged debate on the Iraqi situation some Senators also wanted Pakistan to learn lessons from the devastating invasion, voicing fears that Pakistan could face a similar situation if government ignored domestic grievances.

As while what had become a dull debate was adjourned until Tuesday morning, there was no sign yet of a planned joint resolution for the house to pass to condemn the Iraqi invasion.

A senior PML-Q senator said the two sides were considering two separate draft resolutions prepared by the foreign ministry and opposition parties in order to combine them into one.

Former Information Minister and PML-Senator Mushahid Hussain told Dawn that the joint government-opposition draft could be ready by Tuesday.

But a source in the People’s Party Parliamentarians said the opposition parties were yet to finalize their draft; government considered an opposition draft could be one of only the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

Monday’s otherwise drab proceedings ended with an opposition outcry sparked late in the evening by the absence from the debate of ministers who apparently had gone to attend a dinner hosted by Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal.

PPP parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani wanted the chair to pass strictures about the ministers whose absence, he said, showed lack of government’s sincerity about the Iraqi situation.

But PML-Q’s veteran parliamentarian Chaudhry Mohammad Anwar Bhinder, who was chairing the session at the time in the absence of house chairman Mohammedmian Soomro and deputy chairman Khalilur Rehman, adjourned the house until 10am on Tuesday without making the promised remarks on the issue.

Mohammad Ali Durrani of the Millat Party, who was the first speaker in the Iraqi debate on Monday, said although the role played by Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League was disappointing, Pakistan should try to use both organizations and the United Nations to minimize harm to the Iraqi people.

He called for the observance of a “peace day” in Pakistan by the ruling and opposition parties to lend Pakistan’s weight to the worldwide protests, which he said had shaken the governments of even the pro-war countries.

Mr Durrani called for the establishment of an international tribunal to try people who could be responsible for war crimes, whether from the invaders or Iraq itself, and deployment of a neutral peace-keeping force in Iraq — including contingents from Islamic countries — to keep the invading forces from staying there for long.

Asfandyar Wali Khan of Awami National Party said the Iraqi people deserved Pakistan’s support, but not Saddam Hussein, whom he accused of oppressing his own people.

He said the United Nations should reconsider its role after failing to prevent the invasion of Iraq by a superpower and called for all peace-loving countries to frame a new charter.

Mr Khan also called for, what he termed reassessment of Pakistan’s foreign policy, which he said could be effective only if there were internal harmony and reconciliation.

Mr Abdul Razzaq Thahim of PML-Q blamed Saddam’s alleged suppression of his own people and what he called “conspiratorial invasions” of other Muslim countries — Iran and Kuwait — for the latest bloody invasion of Iraq. But he said: “We are with the Iraqi people, not the ruler. Our solidarity is with the Iraqi people.”

Mr Thahim praised the government for declining to vote for a proposed US-UK resolution on the Iraqi crisis.

Former Information Minister Nisar Ahmed Memon of the PML-Q said Pakistan will support the Iraqi people even though President Saddam once refused to discuss the Kashmir issue when former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto met him in Baghdad.

Prof Sajid Mir of the MMA said the United States government had proved itself as “the biggest enemy of humanity and the biggest terrorist” by launching what he called an unjustified war in defiance of international norms.

Amanullah Kanrani of Jamhoori Watan Party called the Senate debate “too late” to be of any help to the Iraqi people and said Pakistan’s role in the situation showed that “our independence is not in our hands but subservient to America”.

Raza Mohammad Raza of Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party said the United States and Britain committed a “naked aggression against humanity” when the United Nations and rest of the world were satisfied with the cooperation Iraq was giving to the UN weapons inspectors.

Razina Alam Khan of the PML-Q said Iraq war would intensify and prolong with the arrival of some 120,000 more troops in Iraq, “therefore every efforts should be made to halt the war.”

Mohammad Enver Baig of PPP proposed that the government convene a closed-door joint session of both houses of parliament to inform the people’s elected representatives of measures taken to protect Pakistan from an Iraq-like preemptive strike from India.

Former law minister Khalid Ranjha of PML-Q said government and opposition were one on the Iraqi issue.