QUETTA, March 19: Jamaat-i-Islami Naib Amir Laiquat Baloch on Monday demanded that the government should lift the ban on political activities and stop arresting political leaders and workers.

Speaking at a press conference, he said former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain should return to the country to face the cases against themselves and play their role for the restoration of democracy.

He said that due to the absence of those leaders, the workers of their parties were disheartened and the military government was exploiting the situation.

The JI leader said an interim government should be established to hold fair, free and impartial elections.

He warned that if the government attempted to hold the elections on non-party basis, the political and religious groups would resist the move.