KARACHI, March 20: Speakers at a demonstration on Saturday condemned the occupation of Iraq by the United States and its allied forces and demanded that the occupying armies be withdrawn immediately.

The demonstration was held to mark the completion of one year of Iraqi occupation. It was part of the protests and rallies held all over the world.

A large number of people participated in the demonstration organized jointly by the Citizens' Committee Against War and the Pakistan Social Forum.

The participants, gathered at the Empress Market in Saddar and, after demonstrating there for around an hour, marched through various city streets and reached the Karachi Press Club, where two representatives of the organizers, Saliha Ather and Ali Yawar, spoke to the demonstrators.

The speakers demanded that the decision regarding the type of constitution, laws and political system should be left to the people of Iraq and should not be imposed on them by others.

They said that it had been proved that the war was imposed on Iraq as it was strategically located in the oil-rich region.

They said that after destroying Iraq the US was pushing its policy under the name of reconstruction to continue its occupation and then to install a puppet administration so that it could safeguard its interest in the region.

They demanded that bases of the United States army be vacated from all the countries, particularly from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pointing out that even after the occupation of Iraq for over a year no weapons of mass destruction had been located. They said that cases of murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people be registered against the US and the UK in the International Court of Justice.

They demanded that all the members of exclusive Atomic Bomb Club should destroy their nuclear weapons and that the US and the UK should immediately stop supporting the dictators in other countries so that the citizens of these countries could make efforts to usher in true democracy.

They also criticized the imperialistic agenda of globalization through which weaker countries were being economically exploited and victimized. They also demanded that the United Nations be made an authoritative organization.

The demonstrators were also carrying banners, some of which said: "When Bush comes to shove - resist", "We welcome Spain's socialist party's announcement of return of its troops from Iraq", "US get out of Iraq", "US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan be closed down", "Stop bloodshed for oil", "Iraq and Afghanistan are graveyards for USA", "Iraq is for Iraqis". The highly charged demonstrators were also chanting slogans in support of their demands.