PESHAWAR, Nov 5: Mardan police has booked Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, charging him with sedition for making a provocative speech against the government, a senior police officer said.

The case against Qazi was registered at Police Station, ‘A’ Division for his speech in Mardan on Friday under section 124-A, 153, 153-A of the Criminal Procedure Code. The sedition charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

“Qazi has been charged with inciting the public against the government and President Gen Pervez Musharraf,” the officer told Dawn. A government official, however, clarified that Qazi’s house detention had nothing to do with the case.

Earlier on Monday, the NWFP government issued an order placing Qazi Hussain Ahmad under house arrest for one month. The detention has come under Maintenance of Public Order (MPO-3).

The Jamaat-i-Islami has vowed to challenge the detention in the Peshawar High Court and has constituted a panel of lawyers to file the writ petition.

The official clarified that prior to the latest order placing Qazi under house arrest, the JI leader had merely been restrained from proceeding to Bajaur Agency to address a public rally in the federally administered tribal area.

“Political leaders are barred from going to the tribal areas,” the official said, referring to a ban imposed on politicians’ entry into the tribal area. “But Qazi was adamant on going to Bajaur,” the official said.

Qazi is the second religious party leader to be put under house arrest. Earlier, the government had placed the JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman under house arrest.

Meanwhile, officials here hinted at a crackdown on religious parties’ activists to foil the Nov 9 countrywide strike against the government’s support to the US-led air strikes on Afghanistan.

“We are definitely going to pick up the middle and lower rung workers and leaders,” the officials told Dawn.

The JI provincial secretary information Faqeerullah told Dawn that the NWFP Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs issued Qazi’s house arrest order this morning and deployed police force outside his residence at Palosay near University of Peshawar.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad was to address an anti-America rally in Liaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi on Nov 9. Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Defence Council held a meeting at Almarkaz-i-Islami Peshawar to discuss the arrangements for a countrywide strike.