06 June 2004	Sunday	17 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, June 5: Some members of the National Assembly, belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and the party's coordination committee have claimed that by forcing a strike on Friday in Karachi only , the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had shown that it wanted to destabilize the city.

In a press release, the unnamed Muttahida MNAs and the coordination committee members declared that the strike was purported to be a nationwide one, yet it was enforced in Karachi only. This meant that the MMA wanted to destabilize just Karachi so that grounds could be prepared for yet another army operation against the Karachiites.

The handout declared that all the shopping centres and businesses in the other cities of the country remained open on Friday showing that the MMA was neither distressed over the assassination of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai nor worried over the bomb blasts in the Hyderi Mosque and the Imambargah Ali Raza.

"The Jamaat-i-Islami and other religious parties included in the MMA alliance have forgotten their slogans on Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya and Palestine and are now focussing on Karachi," said the handout. "They have turned the city into a battle zone."

The press releases further claimed: "The masses are witnessing with their own eyes that the MMA was not concerned about the problems of the Karachiites and was playing a heinous game on the directives of the enemy".

In another handout, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement said the Jamaat-i-Islami wanted to come into power through the backdoor. "But its dreams will never become a reality."

Pakistanis know well that Jamaat-i-Islami had been nurtured in an environment of authoritarianism and these religious elements had never had the luck to elicit popular support.

"The people of Karachi know that the Jamaat had always resorted to divisive politics."

After getting desperate, as they failed to get popular support, the religious parties had transformed the city into a battle zone so that the authorities could launch an army operation, added the handout.

In yet another press release, the Muttahida Organizing Committee criticized the demands made by some MMA ministers of Balochistan for the removal of Dr Ishratul Ibad as governor of Sindh. "If the MMA members have even an iota of self-respect why don't they resign from the government in Balochistan since a number of acts of terrorism have taken place in Balochistan."