HYDERABAD, April 8: ‘All we can do is to pray for the people of Iraq for it is a war between an ant and an elephant.’
This was stated by the acting president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (Ponam) and Senator Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who was speaking at a press conference at the Sindh Taraqqi Passand House on Monday evening.
He said the US-Iraq war was not a war between Christianity and Islam, and added that the religious parties of Pakistan were giving this war a wrong colour.
Referring to the LFO, Mr Achakzai said that Ponam’s stand on the issue was no different from other democratic forces, and added that one single individual had no authority to amend the Constitution.
He said that parliament alone had the authority to bring about any amendments in the Constitution and that too by a two-third majority.
Mr Achakzai, who is also the president of the Pakhtoonkhwa Awami Milli Party, said that it was the considered opinion of Ponam, which represented the oppressed nations of the country, that all the institutions of the country, including the army, should remain under the control of parliament.
He stressed the need for signing a new social contract under which the rights of all the nations should be acknowledged.
Briefing newsmen about the meeting of Ponam, he said it had been decided to hold a central meeting of the Ponam within a month to make it more effective.
Speaking on the occasion, the leader of the Balochistan National Movement, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, demanded that no outsider should be allowed to purchase properties in Balochistan.
A Seraiki leader, Hameed Asghar Shaheen, said the Thal canal was being constructed to create differences between the people of the Seraiki belt and Sindhis.
Other Ponam leaders, including Dr Qadir Magsi, Hameed Asghar Shaheen, Abdul Hayee Baloch, Azhar Jatoi, Qamar Bhatti, Maulana Ubaidullah Bhutto and Maulana Azizullah Bohio, were also present on the occasion.
WHO DAY: The Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, on Monday organized a one-day seminar to mark the WHO Day.
Speaking on the occasion, LUMHS vice-chancellor Prof Jan Mohammad A. Memon said children’s health should be given priority.
He said the current children’s health promotion programme needed to be reviewed as it could not help achieve the target.
He deplored more than 1,300 doctors were employed in the school health programme but majority of them did not attend school clinics, consequently school children remained deprived of preventive and curative services.
The vice-chancellor assured the university students they would be provided with healthy environment at the campus.
The dean, community medicine, Prof Rafiq Ahmad Soomro, informed the participants the mortality ratio of children under five years of age was 110 per 1,000 and infant mortality was 85 per 1,000.