August 20, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 21, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali said on Tuesday that troops would not be dispatched to Iraq without parliament’s approval.

Talking to newsmen after attending the awards giving ceremony of National Highways and Motorway Police, the prime minister said the opposition and the nation would also be taken into confidence in this regard.

Pakistan has received a request for two army brigades for supporting the US and UK troops in Iraq. Pakistan has, thus far, taken the position that without the cover of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Conference, or of Gulf Cooperation Council, it would not send its troops to Iraq.

Asked if there was still any chance of talks with the MMA on the question of LFO, he said he was “hopeful” that negotiations would finally succeed.

Earlier, the prime minister praised the National Highways and Motorways Police for maintaining a clean image. He said it was no mean achievement that the National Accountability Bureau had declared the NHMP as the only organization in the country which was corruption-free.

The prime minister, however, expressed his reservations about the claims of the NHMP officials that not a single complaint of corruption was received by the department about its officials.

He quipped: “I don’t know whether the complaint was not registered or there was no complaint at all.”

He, however, had a word of advice for the young parliamentarians. “Beware of policemen. They are your guards when you are in high office, but when you are out, they keep guard outside your barracks. Don’t give them a chance, they would not spare you.”

The prime minister said he, being a politician, had some bitter experience with the police, and knew them only as tormentors.