December 12, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 20, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Dec 11: Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan on Monday claimed that Pakistan Air Force had no technology to hit target in night and it was clear that the US planes had attacked a madressah in the Bajaur Agency which left many innocent people dead.

He was speaking at a Press conference at the Peshawar Press Club. "I have spent time in air force and I know it very well that the Pakistan army and air force have no such system to hit a target in night time. I am sure the American forces carried out the attack on a religious seminary in the Bajaur Agency a couple of months ago," he claimed.

He said the US had stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq and it was impossible for the US forces to achieve victory in these countries. He said sooner or later the US forces would have to leave the lands it had occupied.

He said after coming into power, his party would make judges, military generals, politicians and bureaucrats accountable for what he called their corrupt practices.

Mr Khan said that his party would form a fact-finding mission to take those military generals and politicians to task who had been responsible for the dismemberment of the country.

He said since coming into power, President Musharraf had been making tall claims about the accountability of corrupt elements “but what kind of accountability is this that exempts judges and military generals?”

Referring to President Musharraf’s seven-year rule, the Tehrik leader said the military general had spent a long time in power but he had done nothing for the welfare of the poverty-stricken people of the country.

He said as far President Musharraf’s seven-point agenda was concerned it was no doubt a good idea, but despite being in power for seven years, the military leader had failed to achieve even a single point of the agenda.

Fielding a question about the president’s uniform, Mr Khan said that the uniform was not a big issue because the general could rule the country in plain clothes so long as he had the support of “the corrupt lot” at present ruling the country.

About intelligence agencies’ involvement in politics, he said it was an open secret, adding the agencies had been involved election rigging. He said one of his cases against the ISI was still pending in a court.

About his party’s stand on the Kalabagh Dam, the veteran politician said the construction of big water reservoirs was the need of the hour, but it did not mean that the work on the KBD should be undertaken, because the project had been extremely politicised and any decision on its construction could lead to disintegration of the country.