KARACHI, Dec 23: Founder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain on Saturday warned the religious parties in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to be prepared to face the backlash of the people of Sindh if they did not stop disturbing the life and business of the metropolis by giving strike calls every now and then which were confined to the port city.

Addressing party workers telephonically at Khidmat-i-Khalq ground, Mr Hussain said the MMA had the government in the NWFP and was part of the government in Balochistan, while the Jamaat-i-Islami had its headquarters at Mansoora in Lahore. He advised the MMA parties to observe strikes in those areas and spare Karachi.

He said that under a conspiracy, not only peace and law and order situation in the city was being undermined by the extremists, but the strikes were also disrupting industrial production and making it difficult to meeting the export target.

He said that while the whole of the country was an Islamic republic, the religious parties held every protest rally in the name of Islam in Karachi.

He said the MQM knew how to deal with those parties with the support of the people of Sindh. He said the parties should stop conspiracies in the form of strikes in the name of Islam and the women’s protection law.

Mr Hussain said the Women’s Protection Bill had been passed by the National Assembly and the Senate, not by the Sindh Assembly but the religious parties held protest rallies and observed strikes in Karachi only and not in Islamabad or Lahore.

He accused the parties of exploiting the name of Islam for advancing their vested interests.