July 19, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 03, 1428

ISLAMABAD July 18: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League’s Islamabad district president, Adnan Kiani, on Wednesday announced his resignation from the party’s basic membership, along with some other party office-bearers and workers, in protest against the loss of hundreds of innocent lives in the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa operation.

Speaking at a news conference, the PML-Q leader said he had tried his best, within the party, to stop the authorities from resorting to a military operation and instead to resolve the issue through dialogue, but all these efforts remained futile.

Kiani is the first PML leader to have publicly shown his anger against the military operation that has divided the people into two distinct groups —one supportive of it and the other criticising it.

Replying to a question about the failure of the last-ditch conciliatory efforts, Mr Kiani opined that the party president, Chaudhry Shujaat, had little or no influence over the forces that were bent upon executing the tragic operation, in which scores of innocent youth, including dozens of “Hafiz-i-Quran” perished.

To another query, he said he would never join the PPP, his former party, that had supported the “genocide” of innocent people in the two buildings and would contest the next elections in his independent position from NA-49.

He demanded a judicial inquiry into the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa operation in order to fix responsibility of the brutal killings, precipitating so many suicide attacks and causing numerous deaths.

Mr Kiani questioned that if Altaf Hussain, chief of MQM, despite his involvement in crimes like killings and acts of treason, could be made a coalition partner in the government, why were the Ghazi brothers not considered for pardoning to save hundreds of precious lives.

He said he also had a skirmish with the police authorities when he had tried to take food items inside the Lal Masjid, during the curfew and siege.