23 March 2004	Tuesday	01 Safar 1425

ISLAMABAD, March 22: The PML-N top brass has said the nation faces a situation like that of 1971 owing to the mindless and uncalled for actions of a military dictator which eventually led to dismemberment of the country.

The PML-N Quaid, Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, and the party president, Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif, in their messages on the occasion of Pakistan Day falling on March 23 said: "At that time an armed operation was launched in East Pakistan in the name of crushing terrorism, today again gunfire has been opened under orders of a military dictator against the patriotic tribes of South Waziristan on the pretext of attacking foreigners."

The former premier said the PML-N strongly condemned the action against innocent Pakistanis, and demanded its immediate termination. He demanded adequate compensation for the tribesmen who lost their lives and property in the illegal military action.

He also called upon "all patriotic elements, including democratic political parties and lawyers community to step up their united struggle for establishing a moderate democratic Islamic welfare state".

The Sharif's said the generals who had captured power with force on October 12, 1999, were following an "anti-nation and anti-Pakistan agenda, and trying to annihilate the Islamic and democratic identity of Pakistan". They are trying to convert the country into an unconstitutional and undemocratic secular military dictatorship at the instance of their foreign mentors, they added.

"It is a further deplorable fact that the rulers have lined up the armed forces, who carry the motto of Faith, Piety and Jihad, into a war against peaceful countrymen and Muslims, that has undermined their prestige in the eyes of the people," they added.

The PML-N leaders said the people of Pakistan were celebrating the 64th anniversary of Pakistan Resolution while an unconstitutional government, ignoring the Lahore Resolution, was trying to lead the nation away from the course that the Muslims of India had chosen under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam to build an Islamic welfare state as envisaged by Allama Iqbal.

They said the day was declared as Islamic Republic Day in the light of the Lahore Resolution, but successive military rulers, who repeated conspired against the consensus constitution of 1973.