LAHORE, Nov 16: Jamaat-i-Islami naib amir Prof Ghafoor Ahmad urged the government on Friday to change its policy towards America, establish an interim government and hold general elections.
He said the government was not capable of handling the situation resulting from its poor policies.
Speaking at a protest rally organized by the Pak-Afghan Defence Council at Nila Gunbad, he said, “Pakistan has already served the US interests. The US will now show hostility and not friendship. It will advocate supremacy of India which is planning to attack us. The country is facing a grave danger which this government cannot handle.”
The rally was also addressed by local leaders of the component parties and the Pakistan Muslim League who condemned the US for attacking Afghanistan, held the government responsible for the fall of Kabul and demanded the release of PML acting president Javed Hashmi and leaders of various religious parties.
Prof Ghafoor said a failure to hold general elections and hand over power to the elected representatives of the people would render the country unable to fight all its enemies.
During a meeting with leaders of political and religious parties on Sept 16, he said, the president had said the US president had forced him to cooperate. He said these leaders did not disclose the fact but during the president’s visit to the US, Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated it.
Prof Ghafoor said the US had given false assurances to the president. President Bush, he said, had assured him the Northern Alliances forces would not enter Kabul but had covertly encouraged them to do so.
He said the religious parties had made it clear that Pakistan, Islam and Muslims were the real target of the US. He said both the US and Russia were now targeting Pakistan. While Russia was helping India build a war machine, the US was about to ditch Pakistan.
The JI leader said all institutions in the country had been destroyed and the people given a sleeping pill. Like the fall of Dhaka, he said, the fall of Kabul was a great setback for Pakistan. Now, he said, the US would target Pakistan’s nuclear programme, tell it to forget about Kashmir and accept Indian hegemony.
He urged the people to unite to counter the internal and external threats. He also demanded the immediate release of Qazi Husain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Maulana Samiul Haq and Syed Ataul Momin Bukhari.
The JI leader accused the government of setting police, army and rangers after “patriotic Pakistanis.”
Other who spoke on the occasion were JI’s Lahore amir Maqsood Ahmad, Khaksar Tehrik’s Hamiduddin Al-Mashraqi, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakis-tan’s Shamsur Rahman Moavia and Mujibur Rahman Inqilabi and PML’s Khwaja Saad Rafiq.