September 5, 2003	Friday	Rajab 7, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

QUETTA, Sept 4: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal will continue its struggle against the American hegemonism, strive to liberate the Muslim world from the yoke of imperialism, says MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Speaking to participants of a public meeting in Chaman town, which is adjacent to the Afghan border and some 110 kilometres west of here, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that Jihad against oppressors would continue unabated.

He criticized President Gen Pervez Musharraf for allowing what he termed free hand to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation for apprehending Pakistani citizens, saying it had been done without fulfilling legal requirements in this regard.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also the secretary-general of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, termed Jihad part of a sacred mission against oppressors and infidel forces, who subdue people in violation of all moral and human rights, adding that there had always been people who had resisted oppression, rendering sacrifices to uphold justice.

Condemning the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, he maintained that the people were valiantly resisting the occupation of their lands, saying he hoped that the Afghan and Iraqi people would be successful in their bid to free their countries from foreign domination.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman criticized international human rights organizations for keeping silent over what he termed inhuman acts committed by the American forces while arresting Pakistanis and Taliban without any justification, saying that cruelty and oppression should be condemned.

Deploring the inhuman treatment meted out to Taliban fighters kept at Camp X-Ray in the US naval station at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, he said that American forces were violating their fundamental human rights and international laws just because the former Taliban fighters had refused to bow down before the oppressors.

He said that the MMA would not compromise on principles, adding that the alliance had been formed to protect the country from foreign domination.

Meanwhile, MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed threatened to launch mass agitation campaign against the government if the government- opposition talks failed, adding that the alliance would uphold the supremacy of Parliament.

He was speaking at the Dastar Bandi ceremony of students in a Madressah at the Brewery Road in Quetta.

Rejecting LFO as being part of the Constitution, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that the president’s insistence to accept it as such would sabotage the ongoing talks.

Denying that the MMA was against holding talks with the government to discuss constitutional matters, he said that it was surprising that neither Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali nor PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain could take a decision without the president’s approval.

MMA leaders, he said, had been invited to attend talks in Lahore on Friday, adding that the alliance would participate in the talks to take the country out of the present constitutional crisis.