HYDERABAD, May 18: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Syed Munawar Hassan has said the political and economic situation in the country is going from bad to worse with each passing day. He added that hopes for development of a democratic culture following the general election were dashed as the military culture continued to maintain a stranglehold on affairs of the country. He observed that for all practical purposes political forces were forced to breathe under the umbrella of ‘uniform’.

Mr Hassan, who is also the secretary-general of the Jamaat-i-Islami, was speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday. Provincial party secretary-general Rashid Naseem, divisional MMA president Abdul Waheed Qureshi, city JI president, Shaikh Shaukat Ali and other local JI leaders were also present.

Mr Hassan said the MMA was trying to form a grand alliance with opposition parties on a one-point agenda to restore supremacy of the constitution and sovereignty of parliament and some breakthrough had also been made in this respect. However, he said, no final decision had been taken because the People’s Party Parliamentarians was engaged in a dialogue with the rulers. Nevertheless, he said, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy as a whole was in favour of launching a movement for supremacy of the constitution and sovereignty of parliament.

The MMA leader said President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were misinforming the masses about the true state of economy by quoting wrong facts and figures which were diametrically opposed to Pakistan Economic Survey and State Bank reports.

He said the prime minister had claimed that there had been considerable reduction in unemployment and poverty but according to the economic survey report, unemployment had increased by 1,360,000 people. He said the president of the World Bank who had visited Pakistan in February had also unequivocally stated that unemployment during the last two years had increased as compared to preceding three years.

He advised the premier to take effective measures for improving the country’s economy and not to mislead the nation by quoting wrong statistics.

Mr Hassan said luxury cars costing Rs1.8 billion had been imported during the last three years.

He said 54 million people of the country were living below the poverty line.

He said the situation had reached such a stage that the prime minister had even accepted recommendations of the price control committee to import onions, tomatoes and potatoes from neighbouring countries, including India. He said it was beyond the jurisdiction of the committee to make such recommendations because its job was to control prices of consumer items.

The MMA leader claimed that experts from the World Bank and the IMF had arrived in Pakistan to prepare its budget. He said the prime minister owed an explanation to the nation why World Bank and IMF experts were preparing Pakistan’s budget when he had proclaimed that the country had got rid of the IMF.

He said when Mr Aziz had prepared the first budget as the finance minister five years ago, the poverty ratio in Pakistan was 29 per cent which had now risen to 41 per cent.

He did not agree with the assertion of Gen Musharraf that corruption was the result of poverty but claimed that corruption was the cause of poverty.

Mr Hassan said it had been officially stated that 322 people had borrowed Rs250 billion from financial institutions which they had not returned.

He also refuted a claim of the prime minister about decrease in inflation and the GDP growth.

He announced that the MMA and the Islamic Organizations Network would hold demonstrations in all major city of the world, including the US, on May 27 against the desecration of the Holy Quran.