May 12, 2006	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 11: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Thursday invited Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) for talks to maintain law and order in Karachi and bring peace to educational institutions.

Addressing a news conference, MQM’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar said despite the fact that the JI had launched an anti-MQM propaganda his party was ready to enter into dialogue with Jamaat. MQM MNA Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan accompanied Dr Sattar.

The MQM leaders accused the Islami Jamiat Tulaba, the student wing of Jamaat-i-Islami, of resorting to violence and converting Karachi’s educational institutions into battlefields. They called upon the government to ban the IJT.

Dr Sattar said the IJT had been violating the code of conduct it had signed with the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation in 2004 to maintain peace in educational institutions. He said it was Jamaat-i-Islami and the IJT that had introduced the politics of arms in colleges and universities.

He slammed the JI for implicating the MQM into the Nishtar Park bomb blast and denied the charge that the MQM was influencing the inquiry into the tragedy.

He also criticised religious parties for giving a strike call for Friday in Karachi and termed it an attempt to disrupt the ongoing economic development in the provincial capital.

Dr Sattar said the MQM had decided to open its offices in Punjab, Islamabad and Azad Kashmir and added that the MQM would hold conventions in Mirpur (AJK) on Friday and in Lahore on Saturday.