0
ISLAMABAD, July 27: The Pakistan Muslim League-N women leaders have criticized Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's statement that Pakistani troops can be sent to Iraq after consulting Muslim countries.
In a joint statement here on Tuesday, PML-N MNAs Tehmina Daultana and Maimoona Hashmi and party's Punjab women wing president Najma Hameed said the prime minister had ignored ground realities while issuing the statement.
They said there was no 'Jihad' in Iraq that could justify Pakistani soldiers' participation as a matter of pride. "The US and its allies have been waging an inhuman genocide in Iraq, and the Pakistani women will never send their sons and brothers to participate in this callous campaign," they added.
The PML-N women leaders said the Pakistani soldiers had taken oath to fight and die in the service of Islam and Pakistan, while the current war in Iraq, started to promote American and Israeli interests, was neither related to Islam nor to vital interest of Pakistan.
They said people all around the world had strongly condemned the unwarranted and inexcusable allied attack on Iraq. Noting that 40 members of the British Parliament had asked the UN to seek ruing of the International Court of Justice on the legality of US-led Iraq, they said Senator Robert Byrd, the most respected American politician, had also declared all actions of President Bush illegal and unconstitutional.
The said in view of the illegal status of the Iraq war, Pakistani rulers must not seek the excuse of consulting with other Islamic countries just to please the US. They said the only wayout was immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces from Iraq, and the Islamic countries could step in after that to help Iraqi people rebuild their country.
The PML-N leaders, declaring their sympathy and support for the cause of Iraqi resistance, appealed for the release of two Azad Kashmir citizens taken hostage by them.
SHAUKAT AZIZ CRITICIZED: PML-N central information secretary Siddiqul Farooque, in a statement, said Shaukat Aziz in his excitement of election campaign had admitted that the Musharraf government lived by empty slogans throughout the past almost five years, and could provide the people anything except rising prices, galloping unemployment, poverty, ruin of agriculture and spate of suicides.
He was commenting on public speech of Shaukat Aziz in which he was reported as saying that the time of empty slogans had passed and now they would work and turn Pakistan into an Asian tiger.
He said the American experts had estimated Pakistan's losses due to Afghan War at $10 billion, but Mr Aziz cut the losses down to $1.5 billion, and instead of demanding reimbursement of $10 billion he showed magnanimity to the US while burdening the 140 million Pakistanis with a loss of $8.5 billion.
He said Mr Aziz could not prove any relief to the people in past five years despite wielding unlimited powers under Gen Musharraf.
