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LAHORE, March 20: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has given a call for strike for Friday (today) and holding of demonstrations throughout the country to condemn the US attack on Iraq.
Speaking at a reception held by the Jamaat-i-Islami for newly-elected Lahore High Court Bar leaders here on Thursday, MMA parliamentary leader Qazi Husain Ahmad said the Lahore million men march would be a show of people’s hatred against the US aggression.
He, however, assured that the demonstrators would remain peaceful.
He predicted the US’s fall like the former Soviet Union within 10 years.
The Qazi chided the PML-Q government for not showing the courage unlike Europe, China, Russia and France to condemn bombing of innocent civilians in Iraq by the US and its allied forces.
The opposition had handed the government a unanimous resolution on Iraq but it was not ready to discuss the issue for the fear of US annoyance, he added.
He criticized the government for extending the last National Assembly session up to 11pm on Wednesday and then suddenly putting it off without assigning any reason.
“We had attended the session putting aside our reservations on the LFO but the government was not ready to adopt the resolution to avoid taking up a clear stance on Iraq crisis.”
Eulogizing lawyers’ struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution, he said the opposition and the lawyers community would jointly make an attempt to clean the judiciary.
Urging the judges of higher courts not to accept the three-year extension under the controversial LFO, he said people had lost their confidence in the courts.
NAWABZADA NASRULLAH: ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said the US aggression against Iraq was an attempt to implement law of jungle by a super power.
He believed that the attack had been launched to safeguard Israeli interests in the Middle East.
The ARD chief regretted that at a time when the US was bombing innocent Muslims in Iraq, Pakistan government was arresting and handing over its citizens to it (US) on false charges of links with Al-Qaeda.
The Nawabzada said the country could not come out of the present crisis until honest leadership was not brought into power.
ZULFIQAR KHOSA: Punjab PML-N president Zulfiqar Khosa pledged his party’s support for the lawyers struggle until the withdrawal of the LFO.
He said activists of his party would fully participate in the March 23 million men march as all arrangements in this regard had been completed.
Supreme Court Bar president Hamid Khan lauded the opposition parties’ protest against the LFO and said a new tradition of going along of the opposition with the lawyers had been set and the bond would strengthen in the days to come.
Regretting that the government could not yet formalize its stance on Iraqi crisis, he said lawyers could also participate in the million men march.
