HYDERABAD, April 14: Leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Monday criticized the United States for its occupation of Iraq and asked President Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down as the chief of the army staff.

They were speaking at a huge rally taken out in the city in connection with the MMA’s million marches.

Speaking on the occasion, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman criticized the government for accepting the debt write off from the US and termed it an insult to 140 million people of Pakistan, saying it was done at a time when innocent civilians were being bombed in Iraq.

Condemning Pakistan’s Afghan policy after the Sept 11 incident, he said that as a result of supporting the US in its so-called war against terrorism, the pro-Pakistan Taliban regime had been replaced by a pro-Indian government in Kabul.

He expressed the fear that the Karzai-led Afghan government might soon raise the issue of the legitimacy of the Durrand Line.

Reminding the people of the past debacles during the past military rules, he said that steps damaging the country’s national interests, including the dismemberment of the country and handing over of the rights to use waters of rivers flowing into Pakistan, had been taken by previous military rulers.

He urged the government to devise a strategy to protect the country’s frontiers in case Pakistan was attacked.

Amir of the Jamaat-i-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed, on the occasion, urged the people all over the world, specially the Muslim countries, to “topple dynasties and dictatorships” wherever they existed.

The JI leader pressed Gen Musharraf to step down as the chief of the army staff, saying that he had no right to remain in office as he had completed his tenure.

He said that Gen Musharraf’s rejection of the MMA’s demands had ridden roughshod over the army itself.

He warned that if Gen Musharraf did not step down from the post of the COAS and tried to thrust his dictatorship upon the people, there would be no parliament and no government.

The MMA’s MNA Hafiz Hussain Ahmed likened the present government coalition to the US and its allies occupying Iraq and warned Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali to protect himself from “friendly fire” from his coalition partners.

He criticizing the Legal Framework Order and predicted that women, who had been given 40 per cent representation in the Parliament, would prove harmful for the government.

President of the MMA and chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani criticized the government for opening the country up for the operatives of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and allowing the American forces to use airbases in the country.

He said that the MMA was ready to shoulder its responsibility of leading Muslim Ummah, saying that it was a matter of honour, which had been attacked.

He warned against people acting in collusion with the US, saying that those, who were sitting in London, could not lead people as they had been assigned the task of protecting American interests.

Chief of the Tehrik-i-Islami Allama Sajid Naqvi, MNAs Sahibzada Zubair, Asadullah Bhutto and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi and MPA Abdul Rehman Rajput also spoke on the occasion.