ISLAMABAD, March 19: The Pakistani government said on Wednesday the US-threatened war against Iraq was unjustified, but avoided to bring a joint resolution with opposition parties in the National Assembly to condemn the imminent action.

“There is no justification for this war,” Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told the lower house during a foreign policy debate that focused on the Iraqi situation following US President George Bush’s ultimatum for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons to go into exile or face military action.

“I have said several times in the past and I say it again today,” Kasuri said.

But his remarks were Pakistan’s strongest so far against the US threat to invade Iraq after the ultimatum’s deadline expires at 0100 GMT (6am PST) on Thursday, and came after a flurry of attacks from opposition members against what they called unsuccessful and ambiguous foreign policy of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s government.

It appeared earlier during the second day of the debate that foreign minister would wind up the debate on Thursday, when a joint resolution was also expected to be adopted.

But it seemed the government decided late in the evening that Mr Kasuri speak on the issue now after some of the most fiery display of oratory from the opposition benches, especially from Shah Mahmud Qureshi of the People’s Party Parliamentarians and Tehmina Daultana of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

The resolution was practically killed after speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain prorogued the house’s special session late at night for lack of quorum.

The opposition parties had requisitioned the session to discuss the Iraqi situation and to focus attention on their opposition to controversial powers assumed by President Pervez Musharraf through his Legal Framework Order decreed last November.

“All people want peace,” Mr Kasuri said, referring to opposition taunts that the government had failed to come out clearly about its stance after President Bush’s ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“The whole (National Assembly) hall wants peace,” he said about the wide condemnation of the threatened war that seemed only hours away and they could not stop. “Can there be any Pakistani who wants war in Iraq,” he asked.

And then Mr Kasuri read out portions from a prepared text of what he called the Pakistan government stand on Iraq, saying Pakistan’s opposition to war and its efforts as a non-permanent member of the Security Council to remove differences within the international community had continued even up to “this last hour”.

PAKISTAN REFUSED TO VOTE WITH US: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed also interjected in the debate to tell the house that Islamabad had “quietly” told Washington that it could not vote in favour of the US-sponsored resolution that sought Security Council’s sanction for military action.

He denied opposition allegations that Pakistan had adopted an apologetic attitude over the Iraqi situation because of its alliance with the United States in the US-led war against terrorism.

“We had quietly made it clear to America that our vote will not be with you,” he said.

“Sometime you can call somebody sahib bahadur and yet slap him,” he remarked.

“It is with a heavy heart that the government and people of Pakistan have received the news of imminent war in Iraq,” Mr Kasuri said.

He said Pakistan’s efforts in the Security Council and in all other international and regional fora and in bilateral discussions “were based on our deep concern for the Iraqi people who should not be made to bear the burden of additional suffering”.

Mr Kasuri said Pakistan was “disappointed” that the Security Council had not been able to reach a consensus on the Iraq question, and added: “The situation is now fraught with grave consequences for the international system as a whole, for the United Nations, and the role of the Security Council which has the primary responsibility for safeguarding and maintaining international peace and security.”

He said the responsibility given to the Security Council by the UN charter for the maintenance of international peace and security had never weighed more heavily on its members than in the last few weeks.

“I want to assure you that Pakistan as a member of the Security Council has exercised that responsibility with maturity,” he said. “We have consistently opposed war on the issue and tried to remove differences within the international community even this last hour.”

A total of 17 members spoke during about five hours of the debate on Wednesday, most of them from opposition benches who asked the government to take clear position against war on Iraq.

“The nation now needs a clear-cut direction,” PPP’s Shah Mahmud Qureshi said, accusing the government of being ambiguous and following a policy that he said had isolated the country.

In what seemed to be a slight shift from PPP’s previously soft stance towards the United States, he said his party opposed “this unjustified war” because it lacked any legal authority and international backing, it was being launched without allowing diplomacy to exhaust itself, and would cause harm to Iraqi people.

Former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari said Pakistan must take a principled stand when what he called a “neo-conservative lobby” in the United States was getting stronger and ignoring treaties and allies.

He called for opposition and the treasury benches to cooperate to formulate and achieve national objectives and for a worldwide people’s movement to oppose war against Iraq as had happened against the US military intervention in Vietnam.

PML-N’s Tehmina Daultana said the United States had selected Iraq to punish it for its alleged weapons of mass destruction because of Baghdad’s opposition to Israel while Washington had no objection to similar weapons possessed by other countries.

She also called for Pakistan army to have a “full-time” chief of staff and election of president.

M.P. Bhandara of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q urged the house to ask Saddam to quit Iraq to avoid a human tragedy in his country.

Others who spoke included Zahid Hamid Khan of PML-Q, Yousaf Talpur of PPP, Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Sahibzada Fazle Karim of PML-N, independent Maulana Azam Tariq and Dr Sher Afgan of PPP (Patriots).