September 12, 2003	Friday	Rajab 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has threatened to launch a mass agitation movement against the government if it decides to send troops to Iraq.

Talking to reporters at the party’s central secretariat here on Thursday, the PTI chief said the party had planned to mobilize public opinion and to hold protest demonstrations, if the government decided to send troops to Iraq.

He asked all political parties, labour unions, lawyers bodies, women organizations, traders, students and NGOs to hold joint rallies since the issue was fundamental to the ideology of Pakistan.

He said the time had proved that Iraq was invaded on false pretext as no weapons of mass destruction had been found in the country. Similarly, the US had failed to find any link between Saddam Hussain and Al Qaeda.

Mr Khan said President Bush talked to Gen Musharraf on telephone in an desperate attempt to seek support of the Muslim world as he knew that the US had been trapped in Iraq. Moreover, he said, there would be elections in the US next year, and President Bush knew that it would be difficult for him to win the polls if bodies continued to arrive in the country from Iraq.

He opposed the idea of sending troops to Iraq even under the United Nations umbrella as, according to him, the UN was merely a foreign policy tool of powerful states. Instead of sending troops to defend the US soldiers, Pakistan must demand end to occupation of Iraq, he asked.

The PTI chief Mr Khan said sending of troops to Iraq would be against the ideology of Pakistan, which was created in the name of Islam. He was of the view that any such decision would further antagonize the Arab world as they had not forgotten the role of Pakistan during the Suiz crisis in 1956 when Pakistan government, under the “doctrine of supreme national interest”, sided with the West against the Arab national interests.

He further said the decision would increase political instability in the country and increase extremist tendencies. “By endorsing the illegal occupation of Iraq, we will undermine our moral stand on the Indian occupation of Kashmir,” he added.

Talking about the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India, he said the agreements signed there were between the two fundamentalists.

He was of the view that India always supported Palestinians and opposed Israel, but with this government, the relations between the two fundamentalist parties were getting strong.