KARACHI, June 7: Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, deputy chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, demanded on Monday that a representative government be formed in Sindh and power be handed over to the majority party.

The political situation had made it necessary that all the opposition parties jointly strive to take the country out of the current crisis.He said this while presiding over an all-parties conference on the issue of terrorism in Karachi at the Idara Noor-i-Haq.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Prof N.D. Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Allama Hassan Turabi, Maulana Abdul Karim Abid and Hafiz Muhammad Taqi of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and S. Zia Abbas of the National People's Party.

Prof Ghafoor said FIRs should be registered in connection with the bombings in the Hyderi Mosque and Imambargah Ali Raza and also the assassination of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai. The Sindh government, backed by President Musharraf, was responsible for the terrorism and extortion which was now rampant in Karachi.

The federal government was so disinterested in whatever transpired in Karachi that it seemed as if the authorities did not care at all about the city, he claimed. "From where are the federal and provincial governments taking orders?" he said.

"For the last one month the city of Karachi has been engulfed in terrorism. In Wana economic restrictions are being imposed on Pakistanis and it is being said that terrorists will be eliminated."

Prof Ghafoor said the Karachiites, with their vision, had foiled the designs of the perpetrators of the bombings in the Hyderi Mosque and Imambargah Ali Raza and the killing of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai.

Prof N.D. Khan said there was no rule of law in the country. The constitution was not respected at all in Pakistan. The people were at a loss to know if the powers lay with the resident or the prime minister. The source of each problem facing the country were its generals who had not allowed democracy to flourish in the country, he said.

The resolution of the problems facing the country, he said, lay in democracy. And democratic dispensation called for the supremacy of parliament and other institutions of democracy.

Allama Hassan Turabi pointed out that for the last 20 years Karachi had been witnessing lawlessness on a massive scale. The people, he said, had rejected the irresponsible statements made recently by the CM's adviser on home affairs, he claimed.

The people behind terrorism were those who had raised the slogans which welcomed America and its policies. "We should also look into the possibility that the terrorist acts were undertaken so that the present (provincial) government could be removed."

Maulana Abdul Karim Abid said the problems confronting Karachi should be resolved after setting aside all petty differences. "The chief minister is just a 'show piece'. The real powers are in the hands of the governor."

There was no need to be disheartened at what recently happened in Karachi, said Hafiz Muhammad Taqi. "After a long political struggle the political scene will change, I am sure."

The peaceful strike in Karachi had shown clearly that the Karachiites had been fed up with extortionists and terrorists, said Mr Taqi. Azad Bin Haider said every successive government ran on the money provided by Karachi's industrialists and taxpayers. "Yet Karachi has been neglected and today it is facing a host of problems."