No troops to Iraq against public opinion: Shujaat

LAHORE: The government will not take any decision on sending troops to Iraq that goes against public opinion, Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Monday.

"I have said once, twice, more than a hundred times that the government has no intention of sending troops to Iraq. Even President General Pervez Musharraf is not inclined to take any such decision." Any such decision will be made after considering public opinion, Mr Hussain told reporters after the inauguration ceremony of a new satellite television channel, Business Plus, at a hotel in Lahore.

Asked about the Saudi proposal of sending Muslim troops to Iraq under the United Nations cover, the prime minister said the issue was being widely discussed in the Muslim world and in Pakistan but nothing had been finalised yet.

He agreed that there was a new wave of terrorism across Pakistan, but didn’t agree that it was a backlash against the army operation in Wana. "I don’t know who the terrorists are, but it is obvious that they are striking more frequently," he said.

Mr Hussain said the army action in Wana was against specific targets and talks were continuing in parallel that he hoped would be positive. He said the assassination attempt on Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Yousaf on Monday was not linked with an army operation in the province. "Some people are deliberately inter-linking these events, which is not fair," he said. "There is no military operation in Balochistan." Asked to comment on the opposition’s pledge that it would cooperate in the war against terrorism, the prime minister said he would prefer they cooperated with the government on national issues. "What can they do about terrorism?" he asked.

About the proposed amendments to defamation laws, he said there was no major change proposed, only that the maximum prison term for the offence would be increased from five to seven years. "However, we are ready to withdraw this amendment if media people are not happy with it," he said, adding that the opposition was making an issue out of nothing. Mr Hussain said negotiations for the implementation of the Seventh Wage Board Award for newspaper employees were continuing and there would be a positive outcome before August 18.

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