01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, Sept 30: The Jamaat-i-Islami has alleged that a sensitive agency was by-passing the provincial government and directly instructing district police officers to check JI activists travelling to Nowshera, in the NWFP.

He said Chaudhry Shujaat, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and other ruling party high-ups were denying that they had issued any instructions to police for checking JI caravans. But DPOs were showing JI officials fax messages of a sensitive agency directing them to do the same, implying that the agency was by-passing the Punjab government, he claimed.

The Jamaat is holding a three-day congregation at Nowshera on Oct 1, 2 and 3. It had alleged on Wednesday that its activists were being barred from proceeding to Nowshera in Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Vehari, Dera Ghazi Khan districts and transporters were being forced not to rent out their vehicles.

Baloch alleged that the Lahore city district government was also refusing to provide transit facility for the participants of the moot, which was earlier planned to be organized at Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore.

The district government on Sept 15 refused permission for the event though it was being held at the venue earmarked for political activities and the party had to shift it to Nowshera.

The JI leader said that the moot would take up national and international issues separately and give a unanimous solution for the same. Mr Baloch, who is also deputy secretary-general of the MMA, told a questioner that a country wide mass-contact drive would be launched in the month of Ramazan.

He said a committee had been formed to coordinate with other opposition parties for a joint struggle on the uniform issue. He stressed that opposition parties should be clear about their target and the strategy to achieve it instead of being ambiguous about the ongoing constitutional crisis.

Answering a question, he stated in categorical terms that the MMA would not hold talks with the government on the uniform. "The Dec 31 next is the deadline for Gen Musharraf to shed his uniform otherwise he will lose both the offices - the army chief and the presidency."

The MMA would go to the masses instead of moving a court of law in case Gen Musharraf did not honour his commitment, he told a questioner. It was also responsibility of the institution of the armed forces to ensure that the commitment was honoured, he added. He alleged that official and secular constitutional experts were creating ambiguity on the uniform's deadline issue.