KARACHI, Aug 8: The Jamaat-i-Islami, on Friday, termed the abduction of local businessman Saifullah Paracha “breach of basic human rights and Constitution” and demanded that the government should ask the US authorities for whereabouts of the abducted trader.

“Government should ask US authorities as to why a Pakistani national was abducted and where he has been kept,” Secretary General JI Syed Munawar Hassan said during a press conference at Idara Noor-i-Haq.

Other JI leaders, including Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui, Shaikh Rafique Ahmed, MNA Muhammad Hussain Mehnti, MPA Nasarullah Shajee, Younus Barai and Sarfraz Ahmed were also present.

Condemning the abduction of several locals by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from Pakistani soil, the JI leader said alike Saifullah Paracha, Engr Ahsan Aziz was kidnapped by the US agents from Azad Kashmir some 10 weeks back and till then nobody knew about his whereabouts or the reason for his arrest.

“The US agents’ activities in Pakistan are against the sovereignty of the country on one hand and on the other their activities are against the basic human and civil rights,” he said adding that if such incidents continued, people would be provoked to protest.

He alleged that Pakistani secret agencies were assisting the US agents in locating and abduction of Pakistanis and so far dozens of people had been handed over to the US authorities illegally.

“Sovereign never hands over even a single citizen and does everything to protect people,” he said and regretted that Pakistanis were being handed over to foreign countries, violating all moral and legal norms.

Talking about sending troops to Iraq, he demanded that the government should hold referendum on the issue, as according to him, majority of Pakistanis was against sending Pakistan Army to strengthen the US and British occupation on Iraq. “Such move will be strongly resisted, as we don’t want to see Muslims killing each other,” he added.

About Legal Framework Order, he said that it was the focal point of talks between the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the government.

“We consider Pervez Musharraf as an unconstitutional president and chief of army staff,” he said and added that without the approval of the parliament, they would never accept the LFO as part of the Constitution.

He warned that if talks between the MMA and the government remained fruitless, government would have to pay the price and opposition would resort to its previous strategy of initiating protests in the assemblies.

Answering a question about recognizing Israel, Mr Munawar said that President Musharraf was forced at Camp David to recognize Israel, but he would not be allowed to reshape national policy on this issue.

“Recognizing Israel would be equal to recognizing state terrorism and leaving Palestinians as well as Kashmiris at the mercy of occupant forces,” he declared.—PPI