Islamabad, Sept 20: Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan today warned of widespread protests throughout Pakistan if the government decided to send troops to Iraq. Addressing hundreds of people at a rally in Swabi, a remote city in the northwest frontier province, Khan said, "if President Pervez Musharraf decides to send troops to Iraq as mercenaries, the whole nation will rise against it."

Khan, chairman of Tehrik-e-Insaf Party and a member of the National Assembly, said the country was not prepared to "sell its faith and conscience for a few dollars".

"Vital national interests have been compromised under the much-abused doctrine of supreme national interest just to perpetuate the dictatorial rule of the general. Pakistanis are being handed over to the us without due process of law merely to appease the ruler's foreign masters," he added, referring to the arrest of some Taliban fighters by Pakistan recently and their subsequent handing over to the US.
Pakistan has said that it is ready to send troops to Iraq provided there is UN, OIC or other international cover.

The rallyists chanted slogans against sending troops to Iraq and demanding removal of Musharraf.

Khan said that rather than sending people to jail for having contacts with the Taliban, the entire top leadership of Pakistan's intelligence agencies and army should be imprisoned as they were all supporters of the Taliban before September 11, 2001.
Bureau Report