Pakistan has announced it will not send troops to Iraq. Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed made the announcement today, hours after the prime minister said a decision would depend on what his people wanted.
Speaking at a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore, Minister Ahmed, the government's chief spokesman, said: "We are not sending troops. Other countries are withdrawing troops so how can we send them?"
The government has long been undecided on sending troops to Iraq, an explosive issue in the Islamic nation where conservative religious groups strongly oppose President General Pervez Musharraf's support for the US-led war on terror.
The issue has become even more sensitive since the execution of two Pakistani migrant workers in Iraq last week.
Critics have blamed the government for failing to make a categorical statement that it was not sending troops to Iraq. Such a statement could have saved the men's lives, they said.
The official APP news agency earlier quoted Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as saying that nobody was going to take a decision against the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.
Hussain did not specify what he meant, but many commentators say the proposal could be put before parliament, where it would face a fierce challenge from the Islamic opposition bloc.
But Rashid categorically ruled out such a move, saying that approaching parliament was not an option now.
Pakistan's traditional foe India has already said it would not send troops to Iraq, while Spain and the Philippines have withdrawn soldiers posted there.