HYDERABAD, June 16: Jamaat-i-Islami deputy chief Prof Ghafoor Ahmad has said that there was a consensus among political parties that no amendments should be made to the constitution and an interim government should be appointed to hold the general elections.

He was speaking at a meet-the-press programme organized by the Hyderabad Press Club here on Sunday.

He said that although the Friday bomb blast had occurred in front of the American Consulate but it was not against America adding that it was in fact against Pakistan with a view to destabilizing the situation and the economy of the country.

Prof Ghafoor said that no member of the interim government should be allowed to contest the election.

He said the parties had the unanimous opinion that the election commission and especially the chief election commissioner were unacceptable therefore an independent election commission should be appointed to hold fair elections.

He warned that if the elections were postponed or held like the presidential referendum, there would be a chaos in the country.

He said that after the referendum, the rulers had lost their credibility.

The JI leader said that Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and Altaf Hussain should be allowed to return to Pakistan as it was their inherent right and they should contest their cases in the court of law.

Referring to the prevailing sense of deprivation in Sindh, Prof Ghafoor said the people of the province were crying for drinking water and its agriculture sector had been destroyed due to the shortage of irrigation water. He said the Sindh governor had himself said that the province had been deprived of its due share of water.

He said injustices were committed with the province as on the one hand it was in the grip of lawlessness and on the other it was a victim of unjust allocations of funds.

He said Sindh was the most important province from revenue point of view as it generated 60 to 70 per cent of the national income.

He said Sindh should be given its due share in the resources, commensurate with its population and its income.

He said during the last five months, 899 people had committed suicide in the country but the rulers had remained indifferent.

He said the national budget announced on Saturday was just a legal formality and an annual ritual as prices of petrol had already been increased on two occasions and railway tariff had been increased by 18 per cent a few weeks earlier.

About the army’s role in the civil administration, the JI leader said the fundamental duty of the armed forces was to defend the motherland and not to rule over the people. Instead of defending the country, the army was making money and thousands of army personnel had been inducted into civil organizations. If the army did not change its attitude, the people would develop a negative attitude towards the armed forces, he said.

He said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had not achieved even a single target of his agenda.

Prof Ghafoor said since Sept 11 incident, Gen Musharraf had retreated on all fronts and the retreat was continuing.

He said even after the bloodshed in Afghanistan, there was no peace in that country. He referred to the statement of the representative of the UN secretary general who had lamented that women workers associated with social welfare organizations were being kidnapped and raped in Afghanistan.

He said the same American agenda was being followed in Kashmir. He said it were the Indian forces who had infiltrated into Kashmir and killed 70,000 innocent people.