HYDERABAD, Dec 15: Speakers at an All-Party Conference organized by the Islami Jamiat Tulaba at the press club here on Wednesday opposed the establishment of the Aga Khan education board.

They said it was tantamount to shaking the foundations of the country which was created in the name of Islam. They said such attempts were being made under a conspiracy to convert the country into a secular state. They threatened to launch a movement if the government did not rescind its decision.

The speakers included Mumtaz Memon, Sindh Jamaat-i-Islami president, Abdul Waheed Qureshi, Sindh Islami Jamiat Tulaba chief, Kashif Shaikh, National Labour Federation leader, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, Sindh Muslim Students Federation president, Roshan Baloch, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan leader, Dr Younus Danish, JUI-F Azam Jehangiri leader, and Nizamul Hyderi, Shia Action Committee representative.

Mr Memon said nefarious designs of the colonial forces would be foiled. He maintained that the ruling elite had ridden roughshod over parliament and the constitution. He said education had been made so expensive that the common man could not afford it.

Mr Qureshi said the education system in government institutions was not satisfactory. Mr Shaikh said they were not against any particular community but no one would be allowed to play with the foundations of the country.

Mr Khan called for a ban on the board and cancellation of the ordinance through which it had been established. He urged political parties and labour and students' organizations to launch a joint struggle on the issue to check activities of the Aga Khan Foundation, otherwise it would step into every field.

Mr Jehangiri and Mr Baloch maintained that efforts were afoot to destroy the two-nation theory and make Pakistan a secular state. They said the ordinance establishing the board should be debated by general public.