Musharraf will be ousted if Israel recognised: MMA

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Munnawar Hasan said on Monday if the Musharraf government made any attempt to recognise Israel the whole Pakistani nation would throw Musharraf’s government out of power.

“If the peace process is going forward and they are moving towards peace then we should think whether we will maintain our stance against Israel or not,” he told the private Geo-TV news channel. “We need a national consensus on it,” he added.

Mr Hassan said they had no reason to become more Palestinian than the Palestinians or more Catholic than the Pope. He said Pakistan had no ties with Israel and its citizens would not be allowed to travel there. He said Palestinians insisted on the right of return for some four million refugees from the 1948 war in which Israel was created, but the Jewish state rejected the idea. He said the issue could become an obstacle on any road to peace. “I do not think Pakistan is in a position to debate this issue until all of these things are cleared,” Hasan told Reuters. He broadened his attack on the Pakistani President Gen Musharraf, accusing him of bowing to US pressure. “The president is already unpopular with Islamic hardliners for backing Washington in its war on Afghanistan,” he added. He said the American agenda followed by President Musharraf was anti-Pakistani, anti-people and anti-Islam. —Reuters

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