06 June 2004	Sunday	17 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, June 5: Members of the opposition Democratic Alliance have moved an adjournment motion and a call attention notice for the next Senate session on intrusion of US troops into Pakistani territory and abuse of Iraqi prisoners , sources told Dawn here on Saturday.

The sources said that four members of the Democratic Alliance submitted an adjournment motion with the Senate's Secretariat seeking debate on the reported incidents in which coalition troops in Afghanistan entered the tribal areas of Pakistan during an operation against terrorists.

The motion has been signed by the leader of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Mian Raza Rabbani, PPP Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, Pakistan Muslim League-N Senator Ishaq Dar and Balochistan National Movement (BNM) Senator Sanaullah Baloch.

Mr Rabbani has also submitted an call attention notice seeking a debate on the issue of Iraqi prisoners' abuse. Through the notice, the PPP senator has also asked the policy of the Pakistan government on the issue and if it would take the matter to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Giving explanation for raising the issue in the upper House, Mr Rabbani said the world media had exposed the humiliation and torture that had been inflicted on the Iraqi prisoners by the coalition forces.

The senator said that the treatment was in total violation of the Geneva Convention and the international law. Moreover, he said, it had also hurt the cultural values of the Muslim world. He was of the view that there was a need for collective action on the part of the Muslim world that such acts were not repeated.