Musharraf to chair Army Commanders conference

Islamabad, Nov 1 (UNI) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will chair the Pakistani Army Commanders conference on November 7 in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, which will focus on national security, including Monday's air strike on Bajaur that claimed 82 lives, and major international issues.

Gen Musharraf will head the conference, which will discuss critical local and international issues, particularly law and order situation in the country and the centre-provinces relations, the Dawn reported.

The President will brief the conference on the latest developments in Pakistan's relations with the US and India, with special reference to the ongoing open and back channel talks with its neighbouring country. The talks are aimed at ''removing troops from Siachin and signing an agreement on Sir Creek''.

Military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan confirmed that the conference would discuss the situation arising out of the Bajaur air raid.

However, he said the conference had been earlier scheduled and it was not specifically convened to discuss missile attack in the tribal region of Bajaur.

''But this is an important issue and will be discussed thoroughly,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties, Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), have submitted separate resolutions to the National Assembly and Senate secretariats seeking debate on the killings.

The motion submitted by the ARD members has signatures of 12 Assembly memebers belonging to the People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N. The MMA's motion has been signed by 23 members.

The MMA members have claimed that the attack on a Bajaur seminary was carried out by the US aircraft, which killed children aged between 10 and 15.

The MMA's motion said the US aircraft bombed Madressah Ziaul Quran located at village Inam Khurd Channa Gai in Bajaur at 0502 hrs local time on October 30 (Monday) killing 80 children between 10 to 15 years of age.

''The US committed the same brutality in Bajaur twice in the past and the government of Pakistan is extending its full cooperation to the US with closed eyes. The US bombardment on innocent children and unarmed people of Bajaur and insensitivity of the Pakistan government is a clear proof of the government's failure to protect the people's fundamental rights and the life, property and honour of its citizens as enshrined in the 1973 Constitution,'' the motion added.

Prominent among the signatories were MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Liaquat Baloch and Asadullah Bhutto.

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