06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Major opposition parties have decided to launch a nationwide movement against the government from Friday to protest what they call a "U-turn by it on Kashmir policy and the country's nuclear programme."

Leaders of the parties announced the decision in speeches at separate rallies held in the federal capital to express solidarity with the people of occupied Kashmir.

They also expressed solidarity with the father of the country's nuclear programme, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, saying that he was still a national hero "as he had done nothing wrong."

Military governments, they claimed, "always came to power to safeguard the interests of the US."

"The military governments hanged former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and humiliated Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan for acquiring and demonstrating nuclear capability," they charged.

The opposition leaders feared that Dr A.Q. Khan's life was in danger, and in the prevailing crisis the "nation should demonstrate patriotism as was seen at the time of Pakistan's creation."

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's acting president and Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed addressed a rally at Abpara Chowk during which he gave a strike call for Friday.

He appealed to traders to join hands with the MMA "to protect the Kashmiris and nuclear programme".

The MMA chief said the government had failed to protect nuclear assets and had started victimizing nuclear scientists "at the behest of the US".

"Today Dr A Q Khan has agreed to become a scapegoat and taken all the responsibility of transferring nuclear technology to other states, but after one month, the UN would devolve its responsibility to the entire country," he said.

He said the Kashmiris from both sides should be included in the India-Pakistan talks so that the objective of a meaningful solution to the dispute could be achieved.

He said the MMA would continue to support the ongoing freedom struggle of Kashmiri people who had sacrificed more than 90,000 lives in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.

MNAs Mian Muhammad Aslam and Hanif Abbasi and a brother of detained KRL official Hassamul Haq also spoke on the occasion.

In a separate rally in front of the UN office, Blue Area, ARD's information secretary Zafar Ali Shah said Dr A Q Khan was innocent even if he had transferred nuclear technology to other countries.

PML-N's chief coordinator Ahsan Iqbal said the nation would not accept the hegemony of India in the peace process. The government's policy on Kabul, Kashmir, and Kahuta had completely failed, he added.

PML-N's central vice-president Mushahid Ullah Khan, information secretary Siddiqul Farooq, Begum Najma Hameed, Babar Awan, Chaudhry Tariq Fazal, Shaukat Bhatti, Malik Ibrar, Chaudhry Ayaz, Raja Arshad, Malik Shujaat, Khalid Hussain Bhatti and Raja Azad also spoke on the occasion.

Later, the PML-N leaders presented a memorandum to the UN office, demanding a plebiscite in Kashmir.

It read: "Today, when the people of Pakistan express solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and their prolonged struggle for the right of self-determination, we take this opportunity to remind you of the UNSC resolutions passed 56 years ago guaranteeing a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people about their future political status."

"It is a historical fact that it was the continuing oppression and violation of human rights by the occupying Indian armed forces, and inability of the UN to implement its resolutions, that turned the peaceful struggle of the Kashmir people into militancy in 1989."