February 6, 2006	Monday	Muharram 7, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Feb 5: President of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and chief of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Qazi Hussain Ahmed has accused President General Pervez Musharraf of weakening Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir under the garb of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) while India has not changed its stance and is bluffing the world on different pretexts.

“The only solution of the Kashmir dispute is holding plebiscite under the UN resolutions. Pakistan as well as the whole Islamic world should press Indian rulers for giving this fundamental right to the Kashmiri people,” Qazi said while addressing a press conference here at his residence in connection with the Solidarity Day (Feb 5) on Sunday.

He said that soon after Muharram the MMA would contact the ARD leadership for launching a country-wide protest movement against the US intervention in Pakistan, deployment of foreign troops in the country, the Balochistan operation, the Kashmir issue and other failed policies of the Gen Musharraf government.

President Gen Musharraf’s government had weakened Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir by taking some steps in haste for the revival of CBMs with India, saying that neither the people of Pakistan nor Kashmir would accept those decisions which go against the wishes of the Kashmiri people and their decades-long struggle for independence.

He said that the government had not only deviated from its principled stand but also provided an opportunity to India to hoodwink the Kashmiri leadership, the Pakistan government and the international community on different pretexts.

He said: “India still considers Kashmir as an integral part.”

About Solidarity Day, Qazi said that after the Shimla and Tashkent accords the Kashmir issue was put in cold storage by successive governments but when the Kashmiri people had intensified their struggle for independence in 1989 the JI had announced Feb 5 as Solidarity Day with the Kashmiri people which was later on observed on a governmental level.

He said that since President Gen Musharraf’s policies regarding the Kashmir dispute were wavering, therefore the whole nation should unite to put pressure on the government and provide political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for independence.

Similarly, Pakistan and the whole Islamic world should put pressure on India to resolve the Kashmir dispute in the light of UN resolutions as in the wake of US-Indo relations one could expect the US to support Pakistan against India.

He said that the Kashmiri people were united under the leadership of Syed Ali Gillani and were struggling for freedom; however, conspiracies were being hatched to weaken his leadership.

About Hamas’s victory in Palestine elections, the MMA leader said that the whole Islamic world, including Pakistan, should recognize Hamas as the true leadership of the Palestinian people.

NWFP Senior Minister and provincial chief of JI Sirajul Haq, provincial minister Kashif Azam, MMA MNAs Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Sabir Hussain Awan, JI leaders Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Dr Iqbal Khalil and Hakim Abdul Waheed were also present on the occasion.