MMA to highlight post 9/11 US atrocities

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has announced that it will observe the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States as a protest day and will stage rallies across Pakistan to condemn the American atrocities against Muslims all over the world.

“The MMA has decided to observe September 11 as a protest day to condemn the on-going US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli atrocities against Palestinian Muslims,” said Liaqat Baloch while addressing workers of the Jamaat-e-Islami on Wednesday. He said that the MMA would show it solidarity with the people of Indian Held Kashmir, Palestine and Iraq on September 11.

He said the US has used 9/11 to invade Muslim countries. “The MMA strongly condemns any kind of terrorism and also condemns state terrorism,” he said.

He said Pakistan was facing many internal and external pressures and the military leadership of the country had been unable to bring the country out from under these pressures. “The best way to defuse these pressures is by allowing the parliament and the judiciary to work without interference,” he said.

He added that religious forces in the country would not allow the country to be secularised. He said that the secular-minded people who were ruling the country think that they can counter the religious forces by making accusations of terrorist connections, but this tactic would not succeed. He said that according to the 17th Constitutional Amendment, President General Pervez Musharraf must take off his uniform by December 31. “If the president does not leave the uniform, then he will not be able to keep the slot of the president,” he warned.

He said that the military leadership should realise that the distance between the military and the people of the country had increased and that distance would only become greater if the president kept his uniform. He said that the next three months were very important for the country. He added that JI would hold its annual party gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore from October1 to 3.

JI Deputy Secretary General Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha, while addressing the gathering, said that the JI had introduced clean leadership in the country during the last 63 years.

He claimed that one federal minister earned money by appointing 7,500 employees on daily wages in a national organisation. He said that it seemed as if the generals were conquering residential plots.

He said 42 MNAs had fake graduation degrees which were currently being challenged in the courts.

“Why are General Musharraf and former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain not explaining why former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was replaced,” he questioned. Mian Muhammad Aslam, amir of the JI in Islamabad and member of the National Assembly, said that the MMA would not allow anyone to repeal the Hudood Ordinances or make any changes in the Blasphemy Law.

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