October 7, 2003	Tuesday	Sha’aban 10, 1424

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NOWSHERA, Oct 6: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal vice-president Qazi Hussain Ahmad has refuted the government claims of killing Al Qaeda members in South Waziristan Agency.

He claimed that those killed in an army operation in South Waziristan Agency were innocent Uzbek refugees, who had fled the prolonged Afghan war.

He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the construction work of a 300-bed hospital here. The hospital is estimated to cost Rs400 million.

Mr Ahmad said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had staged the drama of conducting operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban only to please the US government.

The FBI was using the Pakistan Army for its nefarious designs and the government was looking forward of receiving monetary aid from the US, which badly damaged the identity of the armed forces and image of the country, he added.

President Musharraf and Mr Jamali would gain nothing from the US visits as the Bush administration had falsely promised to extend $4 billion aid to Pakistan over a period of five years, he claimed.

The MMA leader, who is also the chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, a major component of the six-party religious alliance, said that the president and the prime minister were pleasing the US just to ensure they remained in power.

The FBI pressurized the government to use the armed forces against Al Qaeda and Taliban on its soil, and also send troops to Iraq for safeguarding the American interests there, he said.

Acting on the US dictates would only worsen the situation in the country and the government would get nothing from the operations conducted in the name of Al Qaeda against innocent Muslims who fled the war in Afghanistan, he said.

Speaking at the ceremony, NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah said that the MMA was actively working for providing basic facilities to the people and all the 24 district headquarters hospitals would be given the Grade A status where all the necessary facilities would be made available.

NWFP Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Malik Zafar Azam also spoke on the occasion.