LAHORE, June 8: The decision that whether Qazi Hussain Ahmad and other Jamaat-i-Islami leaders would contest election under Gen Musharraf or not would be taken at the party level.

The collective decision about these candidates would again be made at the MMA level, JI Secretary-General Syed Munawwar Hasan said at a news conference here on Thursday.

He said the PML-N and the PPP had not as yet contacted the JI regarding the Charter of Democracy. “We will convey them our reservations on the charter, being expressed through media at the moment, after a contact is made,” he said.

Mr Hasan said that while presenting the federal budget State Finance Minister Umar Ayub Khan must be knowing that his grandfather had lost power because of a few anna raise in the price of sugar.

He said the State Bank of Pakistan report submitted before the presentation of the budget had not given any method of reducing inflation and increasing the GDP.

He said law and order was worsening in the country. The president had pledged the arrest of those responsible for Karachi’s Nishter Park incident within 72 hours of its occurrence but nothing had so far been done. The reason for the government’s inaction, he claimed, was that the secret agencies had linked Sindh governor and interior minister to the incident. The Sunni Tehrik too had accused them of the incident, he said.

He alleged that criminals were being included in the MQM after their release from jails, and the party would itself become a problem for the PML in Punjab.

He claimed that the MQM had again started blackmailing the president.

fertiliser unit: Jamaat-i-Islami deputy secretary-general MNA Farid Ahmed Piracha has said that the issue of privatisation of Pak-American Fertiliser Company (PAFC) will be raised in the national assembly and taken up with the prime minister and the privatisation minister.

The JI leader gave an assurance to this effect while talking to PAFC labour union president Muhammad Hanif and secretary-general Javed Iqbal who called on him along with National Labour Federation Punjab chief Abdul Wahab Niazi here on Thursday.