LAHORE, Nov 21: Dr Mubashar Hasan has warned the government and the people against the US designs, saying the American people are being prepared for a possible Iraq-like invasion of Pakistan.

Dr Hasan, Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) Punjab president, has recently returned from the US after a week-long visit.

The former federal minister said the situation in Pakistan was a front-page story on every US national newspaper every day depicting an alarming picture of possible “collapse” of the country. A prestigious tank worked out that one million American troops would be required to invade Pakistan to “save” it from a “collapse”. He claimed the US was searching for a military general willing to cooperate with it when the time was ripe.

He said the US wanted a military solution of the conflict it had created in the tribal areas between the demands of national security of Pakistan and the autonomy enjoyed by the people there for the last five decades. In reality there was no conflict between the interests of the tribal Pakistanis and the government in Islamabad but the US had shamelessly chosen a moment to achieve its nefarious objectives when people were out on the streets to claim the freedom of media and judiciary and demand free and fair elections, release of political prisoners and the lifting of emergency.

He said the people wanted a genuine democratic dispensation for Pakistan. The US suddenly started crying hoarse in favour of the same but the people wanted it to let them fight their own battle. The US did not come to their rescue when Iskandar Mirza abrogated the constitution in 1956 and asked Ayub Khan to impose martial law and when he transferred power to Gen Yahya Khan. It also created difficulties for the elected government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He said the people were also asking as to why the US connived and helped the people agitating against the Bhutto’s government. Was it because it wanted obscurantist Ziaul Haq to impose martial until his death? Above all from 1988 to until recently the US government aided and helped military chiefs who manipulated undemocratic civilian governments and the US deputy secretary of State declared General Pervez Musharraf “indispensable” and Pakistan a non-NATO ally.

He said while agitating for their rights people did not fall in the trap being laid by the US which did not want a democratic government in Pakistan. It wanted an elected government of millionaires under civil and military establishment to serve its interests and those of millionaires in Pakistan.