HYDERABAD, July 22: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain on Friday called upon the government to ban Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) to save the country, saying it was the only party that had been patronizing terrorists and exporting terrorism. The MQM leader was speaking via phone from London at a ceremony organized by the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation at Liaquat Colony here to distribute relief goods among the destitute.

Pakistan, he said, was passing through the ‘most critical phase’ of its history and offered unconditional support to President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to steer the country out of the crisis.

He charged that JI and Pakistan could not go together as the Jamaat was exporting terrorism. He warned foreign countries that JI was the only organization that had been patronizing terrorism and, therefore, it was necessary that it should be banned.

Mr Hussain said that JI collected donations in the name of Palestine, Afghanistan and Kashmir and then purchased weapons and bombs for terrorist activities. The JI, he added, was anti-Islam and Pakistan.

Referring to the MQM’s role as a coalition partner of the government, he said the party never framed the government policies and therefore it was not responsible for the joblessness, non-availability of clean drinking water, poverty and hunger.

He said the root cause of these problems was feudalism which needed to be eradicated and lands should be distributed among landless haris.

He criticized the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the PML-N for signing an agreement with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the NWFP, depriving women of their voting right in the recent by-elections. He vowed to defend voting right of women.