ISLAMABAD, June 28: Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad of the MMA has condemned President General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to dispatch another 10,000 troops to the tribal areas at a time when efforts were under way to convene a grand Jirga to seek political solution to the festering problem.

In a statement issued here Mr Khurshid said that he was astonished at this decision, which, he said, had been taken “under the US pressure and without taking into account the ground situation.”

While about 80,000 Pakistani troops are already engaged in a “senseless and futile operations” against their own countrymen who had never been a threat to Pakistan‘s security or national interest, the decision about sending more troops there had come at a time when there is growing realization that the “only sane and safe policy for Pakistan in the region is to look for an exist strategy’.

The fact is that, the Senator maintained, the prospects of improvement forced the US Secretary of State to rush to Islamabad and add fuel to the long-burning fire in order to sabotage the efforts aimed at extinguishing the fire.

At a time when America was losing its war of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, it was the height of foolishness on the part of the Pakistani leadership that they should throw more troops as cannon fodder in this US-led war. This would escalate the conflict, Prof Khurshid warned.

“Our policy must be delinked from the so-called American war on terrorism and it should exclusively follow the interest of Pakistan, peace in the region and the vital interests of the Muslim world,” he emphasized.

Senator Khurshid called on political forces to raise their voice against this “imposed” escalation of the conflict and use all resources at their disposal to promote peaceful solution by dialogue and withdrawal of troops from tribal areas.

For the importance of the issue, he said, Parliamentary Parties should requisition Senate and National Assembly sessions to discuss the situation and ask the government to pursue the path of dialogue and peaceful resolution of the conflict in the best interests of Pakistan.