06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

TAXILA: Feb 5: People from different segments of the society on Thursday condemned the unseating of the father of the country's nuclear programme, Dr AQ Khan, from his public office and in-house arrest for three months.

Talking to newsmen here, PPP, Wah Cantonment Chapter President Malik Najeebur Rehman said the unseating of Dr AQ Khan and the negative propaganda against him was an insult to the entire nation. He said Dr AQ Khan had been made a scapegoat just to save the skin of a handful of generals who had leaked nuclear secrets to Korea, Libya and Iran.

He said the late prime minister ZA Bhutto and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan were removed from the scene by the powerful establishment just to please the United States.

He said the mea culpa of AQ Khan would never change his status and image in the eye of millions of Pakistanis.

KASHMIR SOLIDARITY OBSERVED: People in Taxila, Wah Cantonment and Hassanabdal on Thursday expressed solidarity with their Kashmiri brethren in their indigenous struggle for the right of self-determination.

In this connection, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) along with other religious parties took out a protest rally on Faisal Shaheed Road to show solidarity with the Kashmiri brethren fighting for freedom from the Indian subjugation.

The leaders renewed their pledge to continue moral and political support to their brethren in the Occupied Kashmir and demanded of the Indian government to recognize the independent status of Occupied Kashmir.