KARACHI, June 9: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad stated on Saturday that in order to meet the Indian challenge it is essential to have a full-time chief of the army staff and all army officers posted in civil institutions should be withdrawn and assigned professional duties.
Speaking to leaders of different political parties at a dinner hosted by his party’s deputy chief, Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, at his residence, he warned that if the country retreated from its stand on Kashmir under US influence and Indian pressure, it would be pressured to dismantle its nuclear capability.
Referring to the gravity of the on going crisis, the JI chief recalled the statement of the chief of the Indian army that he was awaiting the signal to open the war front while Indian naval fleet had moved towards Karachi. But due to incompetence of the government the atmosphere in the country did not reflect that it was facing a grave crisis threatening its security, he said.
Qazi Ahmad advised the government to take initiative and said it was the duty of all political and religious parties to unite to face the situation. He said war could not be stopped by begging for peace.
“Our conflict with India is over Kashmir which should be, according to the partition formula of the subcontinent, a part of Pakistan. As such, Kashmir is an incomplete agenda of Pakistan which had been forcibly occupied by 700,000 Indian armymen against the will of Kashmiris. The Kashmiris’ right had been conceded in the United Nations resolutions and we are not interfering in the internal affairs of India,” he emphasized.
He said that in India, the opposition and the government were raising the slogan that Kashmir was an integral part of India while in Pakistan everyone was taking different stands. This situation ought to be changed, he said.
“Gen Pervez Musharraf has become controversial in the eyes of people of Pakistan and the world community by holding sham referendum which had pushed the country to the wall. The country can only be steered out from this situation by transferring power to the elected representatives.
For this purpose an autonomous Election Commission should be set up which should hold the elections forthwith,” he said.
The JI chief called for national consensus to give the message to the enemy that the nation would prove to be an iron wall against Indian aggression.
For this purpose mobilisation of the nation was necessary and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had decided to hold a rally at Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore on June 16, which would also be addressed by representatives of other parties, he said.
Earlier, Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, welcoming the guests, said that the crisis called for unity of all political and religious parties to meet the challenge.
The government had failed to meet the mandate of the Supreme Court, he said and added that poverty, unemployment and price hike were manifestations of the failure of economic policy.
Other leaders stressed the need for complete unity and solidarity.
Raza Rabbani and Prof N.D. Khan of Pakistan People’s Party, Salim Zia of Pakistan Muslim League, Haleem Siddiqui of PML (Quaid-i-Azam), Mohammad Ahmad Siddiqui and Hafiz Mohammad Taqui of Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, Maulana Ghulam Dastgir of Pakistan Awami Tehrik, Qari Sher Afzal of Jamiat Ulema Islam, Amin Khattak of Awami National Party, Afaq Ahmad of Muhajir Qaumi Movement, Nusrat Mirza of Muhajir Rabita Council, Mushtaq Mirza of People’s Democratic Party, Allama Arshad of Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith, Amanullah Khan of PML, Syed Zia Abbas of National People’s Party and Abdul Rashid Turabi of JI Azad Kashmir also spoke.