07 March 2004	Sunday	15 Muharram 1425

HYDERABAD, March 6: Jamaat-i-Islami secretary-general Syed Munawar Hassan has said after becoming the frontline state in the US invasion of Afghanistan, terrorist activities in Pakistan have increased manifold.

Speaking at a news conference at the party office here on Saturday, he said the Quetta carnage was the second major incident in the recent past.

Mr Hassan accused the US of fueling Sunni-Shia riots in the country. He said the murder of Maulana Azam Tariq in Islamabad was a chain of the same conspiracy.

He claimed that after Pakistan became the frontline state in the Afghanistan war, eight million more people had joined the list of those living below the poverty line.

Condemning the Wana operation, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader said it was for the first time that 70,000 army personnel backed by American forces were deployed in tribal areas.

He said Pakistan was working on the dictates of the International Monetary Fund.

He said unemployment and poverty had increased but Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz was claiming that the national kitty was filled up to the brim.

The JI leader maintained that domestic and foreign investment had come to a halt due to lawlessness in the country.

He said Karachi was the yardstick to gauge the tempo of investment and added that when there was no investment in Karachi, there was no investment in the country.

Mr Hassan also accused President Gen Pervez Musharraf of compromising on the Kashmir issue, saying he had agreed to give Kashmir to India.

He charged that a list of Kashmiri commanders had been handed over to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as a result 12 commanders had been exterminated.

The MMA leader said Pakistan was not a signatory to the NPT and the CTBT and it was therefore not answerable to the world on the nuclear issue. He said the blame against Pakistan could be that it had violated international norms.

He criticized the rulers for publicly disgracing nuclear scientists.

Mr Hassan said on the basis of what he called charge-sheet issued by President Musharraf, the nuclear programme could be rolled back and the country could be declared a rogue state.

Talking about the situation in Sindh, he said it was the only province which was being ruled by the governor instead of the chief minister.

He said crime had increased by 40 per cent in the province and car-lifting cases in Karachi had increased by 60 per cent. He said this was due to the rule of 'extortionists'.

The JI leader said the MMA had decided to launch a mass-contact movement to extricate the country from the crisis and it had also decided to hold public meetings in tribal areas.

Sindh JI president Dr Mumtaz Memon said the Sindh government was not a coalition government but an artificial majority government in which the chief minister was powerless.

He alleged that Saleem Jan Mazari had unleashed inhuman atrocities against JI activists in Kashmor.