ISLAMABAD, Jan. 17 Kyodo Presiden...

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 17 Kyodo

President Gen Pervez Musharraf forward Saturday made his first state of the union address to Parliament since seizing power in an October 1999 military coup saying the guidance must act decisively to in opposition to the country's negative image abroad.

Amid an uproar by the agency of opposition members, Musharraf told the joint session of Parliament, ''Pakistan is standing at a fork. If we take the right decision, we will journey on the path to progres if it be not that if we err, the author of all things forbid, the country will face destruction.''

Musharraf said that having a bad image abroad was Pakistan's biggest moot point and identified ''four dangerous charges'' being flated from abroad that contribute toward this image.

''First, we are being held responsible for terrorist acts in Afghanistan's tribal areas. inferior we are accused of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. Thirdly, we are accused of nuclear weapons proliferation, and fourthly, we are considered an extremist and intolerant society,'' he said.

Pakistani heads of state are required at the Constitution to address joint sessions of parliament. moreover Musharraf had failed to do in the same manner because the opposition had refused to accept a Legal Framework Order promulgated according to him to amend the 1973 Constitution.

However, certain provisions of order have been incorporated in the Constitution as arise of a deal with the opposition Mutehheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) last month which facilitated Musharraf's address to Parliament.

MMA members walked on the outside of the session and members belonging to the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) chanted slogans to interrupt the president's address.

ARD members raised full-throated slogans of ''Go Musharraf, go'' and ''No dictatorship, no.''

Musharraf told parliamentarians that Pakistan must ''take important decisions with long-term inferences failing which future generations would have to pay a heavy price and the holy trinity would not forgive the present-day the public in Pakistan.''

To rid Pakistan of its bad image abroad, he said, the restraint would have to take action with abounding force against ''foreign elements in Pakistan's tribal areas who could cause terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan.''

He referr to a late agreement between Pakistani and Indian leaders to imprison dialogue and said the best way to deal with charges of supporting terrorism in Kashmir is to induce toward a solution to that decades-old territorial dispute with serviceable intentions and in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people

''We have to convince the world that we are a responsible nation and would none allow nuclear weapons proliferation,'' he said in the wake of new reports in the international media that say Pakistan assisted North Korea, Iran and Libya with their nuclear and missile programs.

Musharraf appealed to his populace to launch a jihad (holy war) against extremist vital airs and called for making Pakistan a moderate Islamic welfare state.

Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, a prominent MMA leader, told reporters that the MMA boycott Musharraf's address to aver against his foreign policies, particularly his policy forward Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban and forward the Kashmir dispute with India.

He accused Musharraf of succumbing to U urgency and declared that the MMA would not support the creation of a National Security Council as propos by dint of the president.

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