ISLAMABAD, June 3: Opposition parties in the National Assembly on Thursday demanded sacking of the Sindh government for having failed to check violence and crime while the ruling coalition gave contradictory signals for a possible change in the province.

During a marathon debate on recent violence in Karachi, both the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal put aside their leadership dispute in the lower house to demand the removal of Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad and Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Mahar's cabinet.

But Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat dismissed the demands as undemocratic while declaring that the government would make no compromise with 'anti-nation and anti-Islam elements' he blamed for violence.

Mr Hayat said the demand for the removal of the governor and the chief minister by most of the opposition members was undemocratic because the present coalition enjoyed the support of the majority in the provincial assembly.

However, the minister invited all political parties to sit with the government to chalk out a future course of action to combat terrorism. He said some administrative changes had already been made to improve the efficiency of the law enforcement agencies and more could follow if needed.

He rejected an opposition charge that the police had completely failed to maintain law and order and cited several important cases of violence in previous years that he said had been settled with the punishment of culprits.

From what was originally set to be a two-hour affair, the debate on two MMA adjournment motions about Sunday's murder of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai and one by the PPP about Monday's bomb attack on an Imambargah in Karachi consumed seven hours.

More than 35 members took part in the debate, including opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman (who is not recognized in that position by the ARD and its allies), ARD chairman Amin Fahim, MMA acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmad, People's Party Parliamentarians Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar and Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

Several MMA members, particularly those from Jamaat-i-Islami, severely criticized the MQM and its governor, holding them responsible for the recent and most of the previous violence in Karachi.

The MQM rejected the charges. Maulana Fazl and Qazi Hussain Ahmed proposed giving the PPP a chance to form a government in Sindh as the largest party in the provincial assembly.

When Jamaat members accused Governor Ibad of having been involved in criminal cases, including murder, that were later withdrawn, MQM member Kunwar Khalid Yunus challenged Qazi Hussain Ahmed to explain what had happened to a murder FIR registered against him in connection with violence in Lahore during the visit to the city by then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in February 1999.

The Jamaat chief, as if not grasping what Mr Yunus was referring to, said that an anti-terrorism court had absolved him of the charges relating to the agitation against the US invasion of Afghanistan.

"When all these tactics didn't work...they tried to remove President Pervez Musharraf as their biggest hurdle in their way," he pointed out. Maulana Fazl said the present set-up in Sindh had failed to ensure peaceful conditions in the province. "Therefore, the Sindh governor and the chief minister should be removed or they should resign," he said and called for a new coalition government from the present provincial assembly.

"If the People's Party is in a position (to form the government), it should be given a chance," he said. The MMA leader said that Mufti Shamzai was killed before he could undertake a planned peace-making trip to South Waziristan Agency to prevent another clash between the army and tribals.