19 December 2004	Sunday	06 Ziqa'ad 1425

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ISLAMABAD Dec 18: The All Parties Khatm-i-Nabuwat Conference held under the aegis of the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam (Fazl) on Saturday gave a call for countrywide agitation on Dec 24 to protest against the deletion of the column of religion from machine-readable passport.

A large number of religious scholars and political leaders spoke on the issue and called for a united and concerted movement to end the rule of President Gen Pervez Musharraf who, they alleged, was working on American agenda to convert the country into a secular state.

The conference called for immediate restoration of the column of religion in the passport.

It rejected the government's plea that the column could not be included in the computerized passport on technical grounds as well as the argument that since no other country, including Saudi Arabia, mentioned region its passport, it was not necessary in Pakistan.

The conference recommended a 'sweeping and unabated' movement to get rid of army rule.

The People's Party Parliamentarians stayed away from the conference while the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was represented by Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy Secretary-General Zafar Iqbal Jhagra.

The opposition leader in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who presided over the conference, accused Gen Musharraf of working for imperialism and using the army for implementing its agenda.

He alleged that the president, in a planned manner, was damaging Islamic values, as first he targeted the blasphemy law, then the Hudood laws, educational syllabus and the religious institutions in the country.

He said the National Assembly had unanimously passed the law declaring Qadianis non-Muslim after a 100-year struggle, which the present dispensation was trying to undo.