Lahore, Mar 6: Religious leaders and organisations in Pakistan have strongly reacted to the Presidential pardon to Indian spy Kashmir Singh, and said that perhaps Musharraf freed him for the purpose of "establishing Indian supremacy in the region as per American agenda".

They said that freeing of Kashmir Singh was in stark contrast to the sheer apathy shown towards a large number of patriotic Pakistanis, including nuclear scientist Dr AQ Khan, girls of Jamia Hamza and minors of Lal Masjid, who, according to them, are suffering far worse violations of fundamental rights.

They questioned why such a pardon could not be given to hundreds of missing Pakistanis picked up and illegally confined by secret agencies at Washington’s behest.

Jamaat-e-Islami ameer and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal president Qazi Hussain Ahmad said Gen Musharraf had only exercised his discretionary powers in favor of enemies of state and foreign citizens, providing them relief and pardoning their sentences in the name of human rights.

Qazi said that the only priority of Musharraf in exercising discretionary pardon was to "please the enemies of Islam or the state". Even national hero like Dr Qadeer Khan, who made country’s defense invincible, had been languishing in detention for over four years waiting in vain for Musharraf to award discretionary pardon.

Similarly, he said over 60 independent judges, who responded to the call of conscience and their families were under detention, were never treated with any of President’s discretionary gestures of goodwill despite being compatriot.

In case of India, Qazi said, Gen Musharraf had always shown unilateral flexibility or pardon since Delhi never reciprocated any of his gestures, The News quoted him as saying.

Hizbut Tahrir (HT) Pakistan spokesman Naveed Butt said the purpose of freeing Indian spy was to establish Indian supremacy in the region as per American agenda.

Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly and JUP information secretary Ali Haider Noor Khan Niazi said Gen Musharraf’s judgement of enemies and friends was quite different from that of the whole Pakistani nation. The most appalling is the case of the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh who are still living in deplorable conditions in camps for the last 37 years, he added. (ANI)