KARACHI, March 1: The All-Parties Conference held under the auspices of Jamaat-i-Islami here on Wednesday, expressed full support to the March 3 strike and the Mar 5 march in the country against publication of blasphemous cartoons by European press march, and urged the government to cancel the Pakistan visit of President George Bush scheduled for Friday.

The APC, which was presided over by Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, JI’s Naib Amir, also endorsed the verdict by International Tribunal for Iraq that declared President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of trampling human rights.

Through a resolution unanimously adopted at the APC, the participants appealed to people to make the strike and march a success.

The resolution also asked Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down immediately for his failure in conveying the feelings and sentiments of the citizens of Pakistan in an exact manner and in effecting a boycott of the products from the countries involved in blasphemy.

Addressing the moot, held at the JI’s Karachi office Idara Noor-i-Haq and titled: Bush’s visit to Pakistan and Worst Trampling of Human Rights by the US, Prof Ghafoor recalled that the US was the country that had dropped nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Even today, if world is under threat from any power, it was the US along with its allies.”

In his speech, Mamnoon Hussain of the PML-N said that the US had a history of human rights violations, and pointed out that it was President Bush who had introduced such laws under which any person could be arrested without any assigning any reason.

ARD Sindh President Zain Ansari said that the US had never been a champion of human rights, nor had it been a friend of any other state. “Its friendship revolves round its interests only.”

Allama Hasan Turabi of the Shia Ulema Council said the US would always be condemned for using nuclear bomb against Japan. He said Washington had always been supporting autocratic rulers, and now it was using the UN for promoting its own interests.

Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui of JI pointed out that the US president, who was advising the people of Pakistan not to hold rallies and demonstrations, had faced protest demonstrations against him by millions of people wherever he landed over the last three years.

Mohammad Amin Khattak of the ANP said our miseries started from the day we preferred to join US bloc instead of the Soviet bloc.

Siddique Rathor of the JUP strongly deplored those countries where Muslims, after being labelled as Al Qaeda activists, were being prosecuted to appease Washington.

Yusuf Mastikhan of the PWP said the US wanted to transform Europe into its colony.

Syed Zia Abbas of the ANP condemned the double standards pursued by the US.

Others who spoke at the APC were Zubair Khan, Afzal Sardar, Nusrat Mirza, and Muzaffar Hashmi.