Islamabad: Pakistan has maintained that it would not permit India to take advantage of the US-led attack on Iraq and launch pre-emptive strike on it, while dispelling impression that it would be the next target of Washington after the second Gulf war.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali continued to assert that Pakistan has made itself "impregnable" and threatened to hit back with "full force" if India launched pre-emptive strikes. The assertions follow External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's reported statements that India has better case to launch pre-emptive strikes against Pakistan than US had against Iraq. Since then top leaders and officials of the government here launched a tirade against Sinha and India.

Without directly referring to Sinha's remarks, Musharraf told a function of Army officials at Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) on April 4 that the country's armed forces "have high standards of professionalism and devotion complemented with adequate weaponry and equipment, which provided a qualitative edge".

He said the Pakistani armed forces "had proven their capability to defend their country during the recent escalation of tensions with India".

Musharraf also said Pakistan desired peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, through a meaningful dialogue. However, this desire should on "no account be misinterpreted as a sign of weakness", he said.

Sounding equally belligerent, Jamali told a meeting of legislators that Pakistan would "fully block" attempts by the Indian leadership to derive benefit out of the Iraq war.

"The people and the armed forces of Pakistan are fully alert to block Indian leadership if they tried to get benefit of the situation," he was quoted as saying in local media on April 5.

Launching a tirade against India, Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad accused India and Israel of launching a campaign of words that US would target Pakistan after Iraq. "We stand tall and respected among the Washington's friends and not foes," he said.

Rashid was quoted by media as telling a meeting of business community in Lahore on April that "…we are invincible and unconquerable.

"If anybody ever dares to cast an evil eye upon our soil, we will respond forcefully and teach a befitting lesson. Our defence is impregnable and we are ready to make a sacrifice for our country," he said.

He was the second official of the Pakistan government in the recent weeks to assure the business community that Pakistan would not be the next target of US after Iraq.

Recently, a top Army general told a business community meeting in Lahore that Pakistan was ready to respond if any one attempted to attack it.

"I personally believe that there is no such imminent danger of US aggression against Pakistan. But in any case someone intended to invade us, we are fully ready to respond against him", the Corps commander of Lahore, lieutenant general Zarrar Azim said.

PTI