ISLAMABAD, May 15: The Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) has announced that it will resist any move to restore Nato supplies, saying the entire nation is united against such a decision.

The DPC has decided to hold a meeting in Lahore on May 19 to chalk out its plan for action, while the opposition PML-N has also voiced concern over the government’s plans to reopen the supply routes.

Talking to Dawn, Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, a senior member of the DPC, said the government was bent upon dividing the nation and creating a state of anarchy through civil war. “We will not go for any violent agitation, but we will continue to inform the masses about truth and create awareness.”

He said the government was making lame excuses that the country could not survive economically or stand at the international forum without resuming the Nato supplies.

“These are falsified statements based on personnel agenda of policymakers,” he said, adding, “The masses are fed up wit imperialistic policies of the United States and they are looking towards the DPC to take the lead.”

Hamid Gul said the US had gone back on its earlier commitment to withdrawing forces from Afghanistan by 2014. It now said military engagements in that country would continue for a long time. Jamaatud Dawa, a main component of the DPC, said any agreement with the US on resumption of Nato supplies would not be acceptable to the nation and the council would launch a peaceful movement against the move.

“Time demands resistance from the entire nation as the Americans are responsible for all economic and social woes in the region,” a spokesman for Jamaatud Dawa said. He said the US should be made accountable for human rights violations committed by its forces in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.

A statement issued by the DPC said that aiding the aggressive US and Nato forces in their designs against Afghanistan and its Muslim population was religiously forbidden.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a TV interview that his party was against the move to resume Nato supplies.

“This is a shameful act and a sign of retreat for the entire nation,” he Nisar said, adding that if the government continued to move ahead with this agenda, his party would contact other parties and resist the move.

Chaudhry Nisar said the reopening of supply routes would be violation of a resolution adopted by parliament last month on new terms of engagements with the US.