LAHORE, March 23: Opposition parties on Sunday denounced the US-led attack on Iraq and Pakistan government’s apologetic attitude towards the issue at Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s million-man march.

Top MMA leaders —- Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, Qazi Husain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Maulana Samiul Haq and Prof Sajid Mir —- led the march. ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah also spoke.

Tens of thousands of people marched from Nasser Bagh to the Chairing Cross, The Mall. Activists of the PML-N, the Jamaatud Daawa, the Khaksar Tehrik, the Tehrik-i-Istaqlal, the Anti-War Committee, the Punjab University Academic Staff Association and several other social and political organizations also participated in the march. The participants burnt effigies of the US president and the UK prime minister.

Speaking to demonstrators, ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said the nation demoralized by dictators had been rejuvenated by the efforts of the MMA. He said he could not imagine an assembly of people bigger than this one.

Criticizing the US president, he said it was believed that Bush was a religious-minded person as he attended church service daily. But, he said, Jesus had preached peace while Bush was a “terrorist.”

Refusing to accept the US-Iraq issue as a conflict between infidels and Islamists, he said it was a fight between the oppressor and the oppressed.

Eulogizing the role of Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad in denouncing the US policies from the NAM platform, he said a great majority in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia was opposed to the hegemonic policies of the US administration.

Maulana Noorani said the Iraqi leadership, though it had no nuclear weapons or missiles like Shaheen and Ghauri, was putting up resistance to the United States but, he regretted, Pakistan rulers, who had all these weapons, ‘surrendered’ on a single phone call from Washington.

Decreeing that the Ummat was bound to wage a Jihad after the US invasion of Iraq, he said those who were siding with America were hypocrites.

Vowing to make the lands of Iraq and Pakistan graveyards of Americans, he predicted that it was the century of the glory of Islam.

Qazi Husain said the MMA considered the attack on Iraq as an attack on Pakistan. Praising the resistance put up by Saddam Hussein, he said he had won the psychological war against the US. He said had Gen Pervez Musharraf not supported Washington in its war on Afghanistan, it would not have dared target Iraq. Appealing the masses to boycott US products, he professed that the United States would collapse within 10 to 15 years.

Referring to Gen Musharraf, he sought the help of the masses to end the one-man rule and ensure supremacy of the Constitution and parliament in the country.

He said: “The army must be told for the last time that it should undertake its actual task of safeguarding country’s frontiers instead of targeting their guns at citizens.”

He asked the government to stop cooperating with the US and get back air bases from US forces.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the United States’ war mania could be encountered by the unity of the world.

Referring to Germany, France and other European states’ stance on Iraq, he said Europe had realized the nefarious designs of the US administration and started to oppose the sole super power of the world.

Citing US attacks on Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Panama, Afghanistan and other countries, he said America had never allowed people of any region to live in peace.

However, he warned that as the US troops could not control Afghanistan despite the passage of over a year, they would not be able to digest Iraq.

“The US will collect corpses of its soldiers instead of benefiting from the natural resources of the region.”

Chiding the “weak” statements of Pakistan officials on Iraq crisis, he urged Gen Musharraf to resign as the chief of army staff.

He alleged that the government had not allowed the MMA to present its resolution on Iraq in the National Assembly under the US pressure. “The government only wanted to express sorry over the issue.”

He announced that fourth million-man march would be held in Peshawar date of which would be decided at a summit meeting of the MMA late on Sunday night.

Prof Sajid Mir said even the UN Security Council could not be given the right to disarm a country or decide who should be its ruler.

He said the attack on Iraq had exposed the United States and the UK, so-called champions of democracy and human rights. He said Iraq did not have even a single weapon of mass destruction while the US had over 10,000 and Israel about 400 nuclear war-heads but no-one was seeking their disarmament.

Jamaat-ud-Daawa amir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said the continued suffering of Muslims had made them habitual of conceding to tyranny.

He believed that the problem could be solved only through Jihad which, he said, would also relieve the Muslim states of the rulers who were puppets.

He claimed that US think tanks had professed that five years after attack on Iraq Pakistan would be the biggest hurdle in establishing American control over the region and it would become imperative to “deal” with the country.

PML-N’s Javed Hashmi said the lives of Iraqi children could have been saved had Pakistan played its role in the UN Security Council.

He said his party would not sit idle as far as Gen Musharraf was in power who, he said, had given such a coward statement that Pakistan should not have been a member of the UNSC at this crucial time.

Maulana Samiul Haq, Liaquat Baloch, Hafiz Husain Ahmad, Hafiz Abdur Rahman Ansari, Rehmat Khan Wardag and Naveed Anwar also spoke.