JI concerned over US "lobbying" in Pak

Islamabad, Mar 27 : Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader in Pakistan's Senate Khurshid Ahmed has expressed concerns over the "aggressive" US lobbying in Pakistan to get a fresh lease of life for its failed policies of terrorising people and the country in the name of war on terror.

Two top US officials Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher have been camping in Islamabad since Tuesday when new Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was sworn in. They have been meeting top leaders in power in a bid to persuade them to continue President Pervez Musharraf's policies of allying with the US-led war on terror.

In a statement, Khurshid Ahmed described the ongoing visit by two top US diplomats as an effort to continue with the game which US President George W. Bush and President Pervez Musharraf had already lost.

The country had suffered because of Mr Musharraf's surrender to the commands to Washington, the Dawn quoted him as saying in a statement.

He said he was satisfied with the independent position taken by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif after meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher that the future policy would be formulated by parliament and not under the dictates of Washington.

He expressed the hope that new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would adopt an independent and courageous policy in keeping with the wishes of the people of Pakistan.

ANI