PESHAWAR, Jan 28: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has planned countrywide protest demonstrations on Jan 31 against the impending attack by the United States on Iraq, NWFP PML-N President Pir Sabir Shah said on Tuesday.

The former chief minister said at a news conference that demonstrations would be held in the provincial capitals to express solidarity with the Iraqi people and put pressure on the government to use its influence over the US to stop the attack. He accused the government of giving a free hand to the US and its allies.

“The government stands nowhere as far as its foreign policy is concerned. It should take the people into confidence regarding issues confronting the nation,” he said.

According to him, the United Nations inspectors had declared that Iraq was free of nuclear and biological weapons but the US wanted to occupy its oil reserve and was adamant about the attack.

The US sprayed the innocent Afghans with bombs in name of war on terrorism, but actually it wanted to stay in the country for a long time and reach the gas reserves of Central Asia, he said.

As part of US President Bush’s crusade against the Ummah, first it attacked 

Afghanistan and the next target is Iraq, to be followed by more attacks against the Muslim countries, he claimed.

“It is our responsibility as a political party to exert as much pressure as possible on the US to prevent it from aggression against Iraq,”  he said and added that the government was yet to announce its foreign policy and stand with regard to the action. In the absence of any clear policy, the nation was in fear about its protection, solidarity and sovereignty, he said.

Flanked by party leaders, he said the PML (Quaid-i-Azam) acted as the B-team of the Musharraf-led government and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali was the weakest chief executive the country ever had.

The government was making all efforts to placate the US and in the process it had mortgaged the independence of the people, he said.

Sabir Shah criticized the government for its lukewarm response towards the problems faced by the Pakistanis in the US because of the registration laws introduced by the Immigration and Naturalization Services. He said the law would affect some 200,000 Pakistanis and their families.

He said the US authorities had now targeted the mosques, which would be registered. He said the government should convey its reservations  regarding INS laws and registration of mosques.