Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hasan has repeatedly said that suicide bombings would stop only after the Americans have left Afghanistan and Iraq and have also stopped their interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan. He is not on record yet having denounced suicide blasts unequivocally and is thus generally deemed to be supporting the death squads of the extremists. This convoluted support from the Jamaat to Taliban murderers is consistent with the JI role of the past, especially its opposition of the creation of Pakistan before the partition of India into two independent states in the Indian subcontinent. The world has changed but not this politico-religious party. The JI has other cohorts with it on this political platform who are equally ambivalent in their position on the curse of the suicide bombings. It is not hard for the people of Pakistan to distinguish their friends from the foes. The people have an obligation to make a choice between pro-Pakistan and anti-Pakistan elements in politics. This distinction must be made without a moment's delay because history does not wait for prevaricators to pass it's verdict. -B.A. MALIK Islamabad, via e-mail, June 16.