March, 24 2005	Thursday	13 Safar 1426

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LAHORE, March 23: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has pledged to take its anti-Musharraf movement to its logical end. Speaking at a ‘million march’ rally on the Ravi Road close to the Minar-i-Pakistan here on Wednesday, religious alliance’s chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the movement would not stop until the ‘desired goal’ was achieved. He said the alliance would not even accept any other army general after the removal of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He claimed that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit had demanded that Islamabad should scrap its nuclear programme and hand over ‘imprisoned’ Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to the US authorities.

Terming it humiliation of Dr Khan, Mr Ahmad held Gen Musharraf responsible for the act and alleged that the president had accepted US serfdom.

Appealing to masses for a complete wheel-jam and shutter-down strike on April 2, he termed it a referendum against Gen Musharraf and his secular policies.

Mr Ahmad alleged that the army dictator had betrayed the Kashmir movement and Taliban of Afghanistan and at present logistics and intelligence support was being sought from him for attack on Iran. He warned Gen Musharraf that people would not tolerate his cooperation with the US and Israel against Iran.

Urging the need for a change, he said the change would not come from America rather it would be brought from within by the masses.

MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman criticized Ms Rice for interfering in the country’s internal affairs by giving a statement against religious forces.

He was also critical of the US as well as Gen Musharraf for ‘patronizing’ the PPP. “We have no objection if people vote for the PPP on their own. But interference by army generals and foreigners is not acceptable.”

He said America, taking advantage of its military might, was continuously attacking the Muslims, and lamented that killing of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq at the hands of the US forces was being projected as peace. Gen Musharraf, he said, was siding with Washington and imperialistic powers against the Ummah.

“The man who has abrogated the constitution, dissolved assemblies and annihilated democracy is being named a moderate and democrat.”

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan termed Gen Musharraf a ‘security risk. He deplored that extremists in Israel, India and other countries were being ignored as Gen Musharraf was again and again declaring Pakistanis extremists only to please Americans.

Criticizing Washington’s support for the army general, he asked whether Americans themselves were ready to follow the policies which were being pursued by Gen Musharraf here.

He also chided the NAB for imprisoning low-paid employees but ignoring the bigwigs, who had devoured billions of rupees of the nation. MMA vice-president Sajid Mir said the army general had accepted slavery of the US only to protect his own rule.

Mr Mir said Gen Musharraf had violated the constitution, slaughtered labourers economically, secularized education by handing it over to the Agha Khan Board, damaged the economy, and was advancing towards bifurcating the country by conducting various army operations in the country.

The president of the Punjab chapter of the MMA, Liaqat Baloch, said the people of the province would side with the MMA leadership to get rid of the dictator who had backed out of his promises made with various segments of the society.

MNAs Dr Zubair and Farid Piracha, Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Abdul Jalil Naqvi, Rasheed Ludhianvi, Hafiz Idrees, Qari Zawwar Bahadur, Pir Abdur Raheem Naqshbandi and Maulana Allah Wasaya also spoke.