KARACHI, Aug 25: Protest rallies were organised across the city after Juma prayers by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to condemn the government’s moves to amend the Hudood laws.

MMA leaders addressed participants of the rallies, held outside various mosques, and expressed their strong reservations over the government’s intention to repeal Islamic laws to appease the US and the West.

Carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans in favour of Hudood laws, the protesters vowed to resist all such moves.

Addressing the main rally, held outside Noman Mosque, Lasbela, MMA leader and Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, Karachi, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui said that the ‘Haqooq-i-Niswan Bill’ tabled by the government in the National Assembly was aimed at neutralising Islamic laws so that they could be repealed easily. He claimed that Gen Musharraf, Altaf Hussain and all pro-US leaders were bent upon uprooting Islam and promoting western culture in the country.

He pointed out that the MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, had organised a public meeting on Thursday to condemn the alleged ‘blasphemy and sacrilege’ in the assembly, and asked: “…but why had he kept silence when the US soldiers at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had resorted to desecrating a copy of the holy Quran and also when the entire Ummah had erupted in protest over blasphemous cartoons carried by Danish and other European papers?”

Referring to Mr Hussain’s demand for the suspension MMA legislators’ membership, he said: “We are ready to sacrifice even our life for protecting Islamic laws.”

The MMA leader said that Gen Musharraf had always been protecting US and Israeli interests, but the people of Pakistan would continue to protect the interests of Islam and Pakistan.

He said that the massive rally to be held at Nishtar Park on August 27 would be a message from people that they were fed up with the pro-US rulers of Pakistan.

Nasrullah Shaji, MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, told the protesters that the country which was created in the name of Islam had now been turned into a US colony by the present rulers, who were now after its Islamic identity.

He criticised Altaf Hussain for supporting the Bill aimed at promoting US culture, and said “…but we will continue to promote Islamic culture in the country.”

Other rallies were staged outside Okhai Memon Mosque (Hussainabad), Rizwan Masjid, Sahadab Masjid, Masjid-i-Suffa (Azizabad), Makki Masjid (North Nazimabad), Baitul Mamoor Masjid (Pahar Ganj), Al-Falah Masjid, (Nazimabad Block A), Taimuria Masjid, Islamia Masjid, Ghausia Masjid, Usmania Masjid, Omar Bin Abdul Aziz Masjid, Khalid Bin Walid Masjid, Masjid-i-Aqsa, Imamia Bargah, Bismillah Masjid (Landhi), etc.