SUKKUR, Nov 19: The secretary general of Jamaat-i-Islami, Syed Munawar Hassan, has said that the road to Muzaffarabad passes through our nuclear plant in Kahuta and presence of Nato and US troops in the area is against the national interest.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, he said that Nato forces were in the country without any agreement and if there existed any accord it should be made public.

He criticized Information Minister Shaikh Rasheed on his statement that the foreign forces would remain in the country for 90 days.

Syed Munawar recalled the USSR forces which had landed in Afghanistan in 1978 without formal invitation while the formal invitation had been issued after they had landed in the country. The Jamaat leader alleged that the government had compromised on the national interest because earlier it had disallowed Indian helicopter flights on the basis of sensitivity of the area.

He said the similar conditions applied on other forces because Nato had never engaged in social and humanitarian work in other parts of the world.

He said that in the wake of situation the ARD and the MMA were left with no option other than coming closer to launch an anti-government movement and in this connection date for a joint meeting would be fixed soon.

He said the October 8 earthquake posed a major emergency situation for the nation but the government had terribly failed to cash the opportunity.

He said even after the lapse of one and a half month, the situation in the quake-hit areas was dismal and people were dying of hunger and lack of medicines.

He said President Musharraf had appointed two generals for the relief work thus ignoring the civil government.

He said that all the matters were done without taking parliament into confidence.

He said this was the best occasion for the national unity which was lost due to the negative approach of the government.