LAHORE, Feb 21: The MMA has questioned restrictions on staging rallies and processions against blasphemous cartoons in Punjab and the federal capital while there is no such ban in Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.

“The anomaly is hurting religious feelings of the masses in Punjab, and is a scar on the face of the government,” deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch told a press conference here on Tuesday.

Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Riaz Durrani and Maulana Amjad Khan were also present.

Baloch said the government did not have any legal right to impose Section 144 or penalize peaceful protesters under anti-terror laws when and where it wanted. “It is sheer fascism.”

He said the government and not the opposition was politicking on the cartoons issue.

“The authorities are stopping the masses from coming out on road under a political strategy. They do not want to see Punjab mobilized for protesting US president Bush’s proposed visit to Islamabad on March 3.”

But he said the protest against “the killer of Muslims” would be held at all costs as all people would remain indoors for observing a complete strike on his arrival.

He said the Feb 26 rally in Lahore would be held from Nasser Bagh as scheduled. The participants would march up to the Masjid-i-Shuhada.

Like Islamabad, the government would fail to contain the protesters from coming on roads despite the use of paramilitary forces, he said.

Asked why they were targeting the government during anti-cartoon protests, he said because the government had shown indifference to the issue, creating unrest among the masses.

The government, he alleged, with the help of the US and Europe wanted to establish a secular society in the country.