03 August 2004	Tuesday	16 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The government should come out clearly on its intentions and declare that it will not send Pakistani troops to Iraq, stressed the participants of a seminar held at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday.

The conclusion came at the end of a panel discussion during which prominent intellectuals expressed their unanimous view that any deployment of Pakistani troops would put the country's national interest at risk and give the wrong impression to the Iraqi people that we support the current occupation by United States and its allies.

The main speakers included Senator Akram Zaki, Senator Farhatullah Babar, Lt-Gen (retired) Talat Masood and Nasim Zahra, a columnist. Initiating the discussion, Prof A.H. Nayyar, research fellow at SDPI, said the people of Iraq were undergoing great difficulties due to the occupation.

In this situation, various factions were engaged in resistance. While the movement deserved every kind of support, it was also necessary to subdue some of the resisters that were too brutal in their methods.

As regards the Pakistani people's attitude, he remarked, they did not want Pakistani troops to be deployed in Iraq and this would be construed by Iraqi people as support to the occupier.

Lt-Gen Masood, after dilating on the events since the collapse of the USSR, said the invasion of Iraq was part of the American policy of reshaping the world to suit its own geo- political interests with regard to oil.

Pakistan, he recalled, had not supported the resolution moved by the US in the UN security council last year that would have allowed aggression against Iraq. The situation now was that the people of Iraq had not accepted the defeat, thus upholding once again the adage that winning of hearts and minds of people is more difficult than winning a battle.

Fearful of the implications, the US had developed an exit strategy but of a kind that would shift the responsibility of certain military duties to Muslim countries.

In the course of resistance to the occupation, however, certain centrifugal forces including Al Qaeda had raised their head. Gen Masood feared that one outcome of Pakistan's military involvement there would be that Al Qaeda would raise its head in this country.

Pakistan was already faced by insurgency of various hues and posting of Pakistani troops in Iraq would amount to opening another front within the country.

Senior Vice President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Senator Zaki cited the statement by the prime minister, who is also the party's president, that a decision to send troops to that country had neither been taken nor was likely to be taken.

This was the official position of the party and, by implication, that of the government as well, he said. Senator Babar, Pakistan People's Party (Parliamentarians) spokesman, said the decision lay neither with the party nor the government nor the people.

The lone decision-maker in Pakistan was President Gen Pervez Musharraf who had given the commitment during his visit to the US that he would send troops to Iraq. He had made promises and reneged from these so many times that, despite assurances by the ruling party or the government, one could not be sure that he would not buckle under the US pressure eventually.

Mr Babar wondered as to why Pakistan did not take a firm stand on the issue as other countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Algeria, Tunisia, Indonesia etc. who had categorically refused to provide their troops. What is more, the Philippines and Spain had even withdrawn their troops to save their citizens from execution, he pointed out.