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| 17 December 2004 | Friday | 04 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
Army given 'safe exit' in 17th amendment: JI
HYDERABAD, Dec 16: Jamaat-i-Islami secretary-general Syed Munawar Hassan has defended the 17th constitutional amendment, claiming that it is aimed at providing a 'safe exit' to the army with a view to restoring democracy in the country.
Talking to members of the District Bar Association here on Thursday, he, however, made it clear that his party would continue its movement against the president in uniform.
He said though there was a difference of ideology between the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the MMA, both the alliances were struggling for the supremacy of parliament and the Constitution.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader said lawyers had always played a leading role in the cause of democracy. He observed that the time had come for all thinking people to evolve a strategy to extricate the country from the existing morass.
Referring to Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain's visit to India, he said even the Sindh governor had made it clear that whatever Mr Hussain had said was a matter of 'state policy'.
About the international situation, Mr Hassan said the pressure on the Muslim Ummah was mounting from all sides and Muslim countries were forced to go on the defensive. "There is a clear divide between Muslim rulers whether they are kings or Shaikhs or wearing uniforms, and the Ummah as a whole", he added.
He said after the 9/11 incident the world had changed and the Muslim rulers were taking dictation from the US. He said civil liberties and human rights had become a misnomer in the Muslim countries.
"Muslims all over the world, who are themselves victims of terrorism, are being branded terrorists whereas not a single Jew has been dubbed as a terrorist", he maintained. He referred to Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya in this context.
He claimed that during the last 25 to 30 years, more than nine million Muslims had been martyred. Unfortunately, he said, the Muslims were being killed by the Muslim armies.
He said 90,000 army personnel of the Pakistan army had surrendered before the Indian army on Dec 16 in 1971 but people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Kashmir were still fighting for their inherent rights.
He claimed that in South Waziristan, the army had suffered tremendous losses but not a single terrorist had been killed. He said two MNAs of the area had challenged on the floor of the National Assembly and at press conferences to show the body of one single foreigner killed in the army operation but the government had always avoided to identify any foreigner. He said all people killed in South Waziristan were Pakistanis.
He said at a meeting with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the government had promised to withdraw the forces and sanctions against the tribal people but it had violated the agreement within 24 hours under the US pressure.
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