RAWALPINDI, March 9: The leaders of opposition parties in the parliament blasted the United States for its plans to launch a war against Iraq at a huge rally held here on Sunday to express solidarity with the Iraqi people.

Tens of thousands of protesters assembled outside the Rawalpindi General Hospital on Murree Road after marching for more than two kilometres from Liaquat Bagh in the second rally of the “million march” series organized by the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA).

Besides the activists of the MMA, the march also attracted workers of Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI).

Top MMA leaders, including alliance president Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, deputy leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad, secretary- general Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Samiul Haq, and acting PML-N president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and PTI chairman Imran Khan participated in the march.

The protesters chanted slogans against the possible war against Iraq, US president George W. Bush and President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Traffic was diverted to other roads during the march on the Murree Road.

The protesters, wearing headbands, were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans like “Allah is great”, “We want peace”, “No war for oil” and “Bush is today’s Pharaoh”. Some placards carried cartoons showing Bush sipping human blood. An effigy of the US president was also burnt on the occasion.

The march culminated outside the Rawalpindi General Hospital, where leaders of the MMA, PML-N and PTI delivered speeches from an overhead bridge on the Murree Road.

They blasted President Bush for, what they called, his anti-people and anti-Muslim policies. Gen Musharraf was also targeted for allegedly supporting US stance.

The speakers said Gen Musharraf’s help to America in the recent Afghan war had encouraged President Bush to threaten Iraq with a devastating attack. They also voiced fears that another Muslim country could be the next target.

They said the march had proved that Pakistani Muslims would stand by their Iraqi brothers in case their country was attacked.

Talking to the protesters, Maulana Noorani said the whole world was up against American war plans. He said a regime change in Iraq was just an excuse and the actual purpose was to capture oil deposits in the Middle East and strengthen Israel.

He said President Bush wanted to change the map of the Middle East, but it was not so easy as all Muslims would present a united front.

“It is our religious and moral responsibility to back Iraqi Muslims,” he said.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad urged all Muslims to close their ranks against, what he called, imperialist tendencies of President Bush.

He asked Gen Musharraf to clarify his policy on Iraq. Pakistan, he said, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, should vote against American attack on Iraq.

The JI chief appreciated recent protest demonstrations in other countries, specially in the West, against the possible US- led attack. He said all people, irrespective of their religion and language, wanted peace and had risen against oppressors. “There is no clash of civilisations,” he said, adding that “everyone is with the oppressed and against the aggressors”.

He said Muslims were peaceful people and wanted peace to prevail in the world. But, he said, they would turn tables if war was imposed on them. He criticized President Musharraf for, what he termed, selling away the country’s sovereignty.

Qazi Hussain said a bigger rally would be held in Lahore on March 23, to be followed by more rallies in Peshawar, Quetta and Faisalabad. About the government’s allegations that Jamaat-i- Islami’s had links with Al Qaeda, he said his party supported the oppressed people and was against raids by the FBI agents, which were “hurting our national ego”.

In his speech, Maulana Fazlur Rehman came down hard on Gen Musharraf and other generals, saying they damaged the country in one way or the other.

He held the generals responsible for the separation of Bangladesh in the 1971 war with India, and accused them of undermining democracy in the country, destroying Afghanistan by siding with “aggressors” and giving away the Siachen Glacier to India.

He asked them to review their policies and to play a role that is acceptable to the nation. “Giving FBI a free hand is equal to selling away the country’s sovereignty,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Imran Khan, said even if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a bad person, it was the problem of the Iraqi people and America had no right to oust him through terrorism.

He also referred to the alleged atrocities committed in Afghanistan during the US-led war, and said Afghan war prisoners had been denied rights ensured by Geneva Convention.

Mr Khan called FBI raids as an open interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs. “We want to ask the rulers whether we are free or slaves in our won country; why such things are happening?” he asked.

He claimed that in the name of national interest, Gen Musharraf had put the country’s independence at stake.

In his speech, Javed Hashmi criticized the government for its pro-US policies. He said such a large participation in Sunday’s march had proved that Pakistanis were not only against American attack on Iraq, but also against President Musharraf’s policies.

A large number of women also participated in the protest march. A heavy contingent of police had been deployed at different points to avoid any untoward incident.

Besides residents of Rawalpindi, tens of thousands of people in several hundred buses and wagons were brought to the march venue by the MMA from the NWFP and upper Punjab.

Political observers said, although, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q, and the People’s Party Parliamentarians, had distanced themselves from the anti-US rally, their workers participated in the march to satisfy their own sentiments against American designs.

Thousands of enthusiasts had gathered on the rooftop of buildings on both sides of the Murree Road.

Javed Hashmi and Imran Khan, who had announced their support for the rally at a news conference on Saturday, came in processions.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed asked the rally participants to make a pledge that they would not allow President Musharraf to remain in power if the government voted in favour of the US resolution at the UN Security Council, or if he kept sweeping powers by imposing his ‘controversial’ Legal Framework Order.

No untoward incident took place except for the use of few crackers at the end of the rally as a police posse kept itself at some distance from the crowd.