Pakistan's National Assembly ( lower house of parliament) Friday passed a unanimous resolution, condemning the incident of desecration of Quran by US soldiers at Guantanamo Bay prison.

The resolution demanded the US government for conducting an inquiry to bring to justice the perpetrators of the "shameful" act.

It expressed dismay and shock over the highly "objectionable" and "regrettable" treatment meted out to the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

The House debated the issue of desecration of Quran and publication of a "derogatory" cartoon against Pakistan in a US newspaper and expressed their concern over the incident.

Members from both the treasury and opposition benches showed unity to condemn the Guantanamo incident and urged the United States to apologize to the Muslims.

Earlier, in his winding-up speech, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar described the incident of desecration of Quran as highly regrettable and said the Pakistani government has demanded an inquiry into the incident.

"The government of Pakistan has demanded the US government to take stern action against the perpetrators of the crime and the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Senate Appropriation Committee yesterday that appropriate action would be taken," Bakhtiar said.

He assured the House that the Pakistani government will take all possible measures to avoid any untoward incident in this regard in future.

The US investigators probing alleged abuses of Quran at Guantanamo Bay prison found that some US interrogators "had placed Qurans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet," according to a US magazine Newsweek.

Bakhtiar also expressed dismay over the uncalled for cartoon published in a US newspaper and pointed out that it was in total disregard to the statements made by President Bush and Secretary of State Rice's hailing Pakistan's role in the fight against terror.

He said the cartoon reflected the bias adopted because of the political motives.

The Washington Times last week published a cartoon showing a dog as Pakistan with a US soldier, who keeps his right hand on the dog while appreciating the arrest of a senior al-Qaeda member Abu Faraj.

"Good boy! Now let's go find bin Laden," the US soldier tells the dog, who holds Faraj in his mouth.

Faraj was apprehended last week in the tribal area by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. He was believed to be al-Qaeda's No.3 and know the hideouts of the terrorist group's leader bin Laden.

Source: Xinhua