RAWALPINDI, April 12: The activists of People’s Right Movement (PRM), Awam Dost Mahaz, Tabqati Jidojhaudh, Communist Mazdoor Kisan Party (KMKP), Labour Party Pakistan (LLP) and a number of other political groups on Saturday held a demonstration against the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq and the killing of citizens there.

The demonstration started at 5 pm from Rawalpindi-Islamabad press club, Liaquat Bagh, and culminated at Committee Chowk, Murree Road.

The participants were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the US and the UK. They termed the US imperialism as the root cause of aggression against Iraq and urged the United Nations to stop the war. They also asked the coalition forces to leave Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as possible and let the people of these countries decide their fate.

Earlier, the participants held a seminar on “The US invasion of Iraq” at the press club. Speaking at the seminar, Zahoor Khan and Aasim Sajjad of the PRM said the atrocities of the coalition forces were far from over in Iraq despite the collapse of Saddam regime. They said the US invaded Iraq only to control its oil resources and capture the Persian Gulf market.

They observed that there was an intimate link between the military strategy of the US and the neo-liberal economic philosophy espoused by the international financial institutions - World Bank and International Monetary Fun (IMF). They urged the people to join hands against the corporatisation and the oppressive policies of the WB and the IMF in Pakistan as well as the concentration of power in the hands of the military, which continued to undermine the needs of the people at the behest of the US.

Jehangir Akhtar Awan of Dost Mahaz emphasised upon normalisation of relations with India. He said the precedent of pre-emptive strike set by the US against Iraq had made it essential for Pakistan to avoid conflict with India and peacefully resolve all outstanding issues including the core issue of Kashmir in order to avoid an Iraq-like fate.

Hamid Hashmi of CMKP and Nazim Malik of Tabqati Jidojhaudh said a new wave of political awareness was sweeping across the globe and it was important for Pakistanis to understand and benefit from that wave. He said the US foreign policy had been exposed all over the world as being the antithesis of freedom and democracy.