June 14, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

LAHORE, June 13: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal president Qazi Husain Ahmad said here on Wednesday that the Jamaat-i-Islami will defend Imran Khan in the reference that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had filed against Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaaf chairperson in the National Assembly seeking his disqualification.

Speaking at a news conference, the MMA president said that the reference had the backing by Gen Pervez Musharraf who continued to support the MQM and its terrorism to keep the largest city of the country under a consistent political and social pressure.

He said the reference had added a new dimension to the multi-party conference being held in London on July 7 and 8 as this was a `tactic’ to blackmail not only Imran Khan but the entire opposition in the wake of ‘fairly successful’ efforts to seek extradition of MQM chief Altaf Husain from the UK initiated by the PTI leader in Britain and other European countries.

Besides, he said the MMA would also move the British High Commission in Islamabad through a representation that Britain should expel Altaf Husain because he was carrying out terrorist activities in Karachi through its armed men while sitting in London. He hoped that the UK government, which had been actively pursuing a global war on terrorism and non-violence in politics, would not allow on its soil a person who understood no language other than that of violence and terrorism.

At the outset, the JI amir condemned in the strongest words the murder of Wasiq Aziz, an Islami Jamiat Tulaba nazim and a student leader in Karachi, alleging that the elements which bathed Karachi in blood on May 12 were behind the murder. He said the JI would get the FIR registered against the MQM and also nominate in it their ‘patron’ Gen Perveza Musharraf for abetment. He said political and even social life in Karachi had been taken hostage by the MQM, alleging the organisation would physically remove from the scene anyone who showed dissent.

To a question, the MMA president said the London MPC had assumed greater importance under the situation obtaining in the country and all the opposition parties had a consensus on a joint strategy to ‘save Pakistan from an impending disaster’.