KARACHI, Aug 13: Founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain has demanded ban on the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) for its alleged conspiracy of terrorism and bloodshed.

He made the demand while speaking by telephone to public meetings on Fresco Chowk, Mahmoodabad and Baldia Town on Saturday.

He urged the president, prime minister and others in the government to take serious notice of the alleged conspiracy of bloodshed in Karachi by the JI and alleged that it had constituted terrorist squads to plunge Karachi into another bloodbath before the local body elections.

Mr Hussain referred to the arrest of some ‘terrorists’ in Lyari, Korangi and other areas and claimed that they had confessed of links to the JI.

He claimed that the elements that had opposed Pakistan and grabbed power after the death of Quaid-i-Azam and assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan were still active to undermine the country’s integrity by encouraging extremist and centrifugal tendencies.

Mr Hussain said that after 58 years of independence, 98 per cent people of the country were still deprived of most of their rights.

The MQM chief alleged that the relatives of those who had snatched peoples’ rights and subverted sovereignty of the nation were still in power.

He criticized double standards for educational institutions —one for the privileged class and the other for the neglected and the under- privileged. “It has divided the country into two classes.”

He said that when the MQM was formed to advocate rights of 98 per cent of deprived people, conspiracies were hatched against it at it was subjected to slanderous propaganda and violence.

He was of the view that even today the MQM was being targeted by the media and it was being said that law and order in Karachi was bad, although the situation here was better than Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP.

He said that recently many candidates for union council nazims were murdered but the media did not report.

Mr Hussain said that after 9/11, the religious people in Balochistan allegedly killed people and rockets were used in the attacks. Similar incidents were taking place even today but nobody raised fingers at Quetta, he added.

He said that in the NWFP women became target of honour killing and a women candidate was killed when she went to submit nomination form. The religious people, he said, had confined women to the home and banned their participation in sporting events.

He was confident that Karachiites would reject such elements in the elections because they were opposed to tribal system and laws.

Mr Hussain said that the people of the metropolis were committed to spreading education, amity and tolerance and opposed to extremism and terrorism in all its manifestation.