ISLAMABAD, May 12: The opposition in the National Assembly on Thursday urged the house to pass a strong resolution to condemn desecration of the Holy Quran in Guantanamo Bay. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, parliamentary leader of the PML-N, urged the lower house to censure the US government for hurting the sentiments of the Ummah.

“It will be a matter of great honour for this house if it reaches a consensus on passing a strong resolution demanding that the United States investigate into the incident, bring the culprits to justice and apologize to the Ummah,” he said on a point of order.

While condemning the incident of the burning of Pakistan’s consulate in Jalalabad, the PML-N leader said that the incident had clearly reflected how much the people of Afghanistan abhorred ‘our government surrendering to American dictates’.

Mian Riaz Peerzada, who was chairing the session, appreciated the point and said that it had been the need of the hour for the entire nation to show solidarity on the question of defending its faith.

On a separate issue, the opposition condemned what it termed to be ‘General Musharraf’s meddling in internal politics’.

Taking floor on a point of order, a leader of the PPP Parliamentarians, Naheed Khan, criticized the statement of President General Pervez Musharraf in which he had said that neither Benazir Bhutto nor Nawaz Sharif would have any role in the general elections in 2007.

She said that as chief of army staff the general was supposed to restrict himself to carrying out his official obligations. The PPP Parliamentarians leader said that the president should refrain from what she termed ‘meddling in internal politics’.

The opposition also raised the question of undue delay in holding the joint sitting of parliament to be addressed by the president.

Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, on a point of order, said the president’s address to a joint sitting of the two houses was a constitutional obligation, but the government had failed to arrange it.