LAHORE, July 25: Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary-General Syed Munawwar Hasan on Friday called upon the government to hold talks with opposition parties after necessary homework as failure of parleys would adversely affect the country.

“It’s for the ruling party to make the talks a success”, he said in a statement.

The JI leader said that the MMA, if necessary, would stage a sit-in in Islamabad on Aug 14.

Munawwar Hasan said there was disunity in the ruling party and proceedings of and the thin turnout at its Thursday meeting spoke a lot about the state of affairs. According to him, Prime Minister Jamali was in a difficult situation.

Opposing any possible decision to send Pakistani troops to Iraq, the JI leader said history would not forgive Gen Musharraf if he sent troops to kill Muslims and shield Americans. Funeral prayers for anyone killed in such a fight would not be justified, he decreed.

He regretted that the government was taking all decisions more to please the United States than Allah. Negative effects of such decision had already started coming in. Pakistan supported the US in killing Afghans. It was in consequence of that support that Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul had been attacked.

In his opinion, Pakistan’s bases would remain under US control and FBI would remain here as long as the LFO held the field. He said that Gwadar Port was being set up with China’s assistance but it was being handed over to the US. Similarly, there was a proposal to shift Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves abroad.