Anti-US rally: JI to oppose any changes to foreign policy

Former chief of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Qazi Hussain Ahmad says nation will stand against America in case of an attack.

PESHAWAR: Former chief of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Qazi Hussain Ahmad said on Sunday that his party would strongly oppose any changes made by the government in its foreign policy regarding the United States.

Qazi Hussain was addressing an anti-US rally in Peshawar. He also maintained that the Pakistani nation would stand with the JI on this matter.

More than 1,500 Jamaat-e-Islami activists along with provincial and district JI chiefs were present on the occasion.

Qazi asserted that any attack by United States on Pakistan would not be tolerated and said the nation would stand united against the US.

Angry protesters also voiced their fury by chanting anti-America slogans.

(Read more: Pakistan has right to maintain contact with Haqqani network, says Qazi Hussain)

Last month, anti-American protests by religious parties broke out in several Pakistani cities after political leaders joined in rejecting US accusations that Islamabad was supporting militants.

Charges by top US general Mike Mullen that Pakistan’s spy agency had supported an attack on the US mission in Kabul has added to anti-American sentiment in a country where a poll in June showed that almost two-thirds of the population considered the United States an enemy.

The United States has long pressed its ally Pakistan to pursue the Haqqani network, one of the most lethal Taliban-allied Afghan groups fighting Western forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies it supports the Haqqanis and says its army is too stretched battling its own Taliban insurgency to go after the network, which has between 10,000-15,000 fighters.