LAHORE, Oct 4: The government should deploy armed forces along the Line of Control to provide security cover to the people in Azad Jammu Kashmir instead of sending troops to Iraq to work as mercenaries for American soldiers there.

This was stated by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) chief and president of his own faction of the JUP Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani at a party convention here on Saturday.

Sending troops to Iraq was not in national interest and when the troops could not make the LoC peaceful for their own people then why these should be sent to Baghdad just for (earning) dollars, he questioned.

He expressed his concern over deteriorating situation on both eastern and western borders of the country.

Heavy firing by Indian occupation forces had rendered at least 200,000 people shelterless and the rest of the population in the AJK marooned, he said.

The situation was no different on the Afghan borders where 110,000-strong regular and paramilitary forces of Pakistan were engaged in an operation against Muslims, he regretted.

He said the MMA had not given a free hand to the government as the alliance would soon give a call to the masses for launching a protest campaign against the government. The call would be given after a mass contact drive to be started on Oct 15.

He said talks on the LFO were close to an agreement but the real hurdle in its way was the issue of uniform which had stalled the process.

He said Gen Pervez Musharraf was misleading the nation by saying that the LFO had become a part of the constitution. Had this been the case then why the government was holding talks with the opposition on the issue, he questioned.

Expressing his concern over prolonged dialogue on the issue, he recalled that an agreement on the 1973 constitution had been reached within four months of negotiations during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s era, while in case of the LFO a few clauses had taken around a year.

Stressing the need for bringing in black and white the whole package on the LFO, he said the religious alliance could not give further time to the government in this regard.