04 December 2004	Saturday	21 Shawwal 1425

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

LAHORE, Dec 3: The MMA's movement, launched with a public meeting in Karachi a few days ago, would go on unabated till the army's unconstitutional role in governance was rolled back, a central leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami declared here on Friday.

Syed Munawwar Hasan, the JI secretary-general, said at a news conference that now the scope of the movement was not confined to the uniform of Gen Musharraf and, instead, it would continue till the army restricted its role to the one mentioned in the Constitution and left the political matters for politicians to decide.

He said the second phase of the movement would be announced at the Dec 17 public meeting to be held in Rawalpindi. The JI leader closed the doors for further talks with the government, more parleys were not possible unless Gen Musharraf honoured the commitment under the 17th Amendment by taking off his uniform by the end of the current month.

He said the MMA would de-recognize Gen Musharraf as president after Dec 31 and call for action against him and his collaborators under Article 6 of the Constitution, which deals with the subversion of the basic law.

In response to a question, he said so far the PPP or the ARD had not formally demanded the dissolution of assemblies. He hoped that all opposition parties would jointly make the demand at an appropriate time.

The JI leader dismissed as baseless claims by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz regarding economic progress over the past few years as a result of which the country had refused to get further assistance from the IMF to eradicate poverty.

Syed Munawwar Hasan said Mr Aziz should let the nation know unequivocally if the country would be able to prepare its next year's budget without support from the World Bank and the Paris and London Clubs.

The situation on ground, the JI leader said, belied all claims made by the prime minister as the number of people living below poverty line had shot up from 13 per cent in 1989 to 40 per cent last year. Unemployment had also gone up and of the employed people 13.3 per cent were part-timers.

He held Mr Aziz directly responsible for the prevailing situation as he had been the finance minister for five years before donning the mantle of the head of government.

Mr Hasan said the law and order situation was so poor that foreign cricket teams were not willing to play matches in Karachi. In such a situation, he said, no foreign investment could be expected, notwithstanding the prime minister's claims that foreign entrepreneurs were running to Pakistan with their capital to invest in various sectors.

The JI leader said even the State Bank's report did not confirm the prime minister's claims. Assailing the government for its Kashmir policy, he said the people of occupied Kashmir were offering sacrifices to get their right to self-determination but Gen Musharraf was making U-turns which could deny them their genuine rights.

He was of the view that talks held between Pakistan and India had failed to give the Kashmiris their rights and no good was expected in the future talks. In fact, he said, India had been buying time to crush the movement.

In such a situation, Mr Hasan said, both the countries should refer the Kashmir issue to the Kashmiris, declaring that they would go by any solution proposed by the Kashmiri leaders on both sides of the LoC.

About the confidence-building measures being taken by the two sides, the JI leader said they would not mean much unless India withdrew its troops from occupied Kashmir, compensated the families which had lost their members in atrocities by Indian troops, released all political prisoners and gave the Kashmiri people civil liberties.

He ridiculed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that India would not accept the division of Kashmir on religious basis. He said a secular country which boasted of being the world's biggest democracy should give the Kashmiri people their right to self-determination without considerations of caste, creed or religion.