HYDERABAD, Feb 26 Jamaat-i-Islami Naib Ameer Prof Ghafoor Ahmed has said that the decision to disqualify the Sharif brothers will be harmful not only for the government but also for democracy as it will plunge the country into crisis.

Talking to journalists at Markaz Tableegh-i-Islam here on Wednesday night after addressing an all-party conference convened by the local chapter of his party, Mr Ghafoor said that Mian Nawaz Sharif had made an offer that if the government reinstated the deposed judges and made the judiciary independent, he would not make any other demand for five years.

It seemed President Zardari had not learnt any lesson from history and instead of responding to the offer in a positive manner, a controversial decision had been announced, he said.

The decision had also created an impression that the judiciary was not independent but it was subservient to rulers, he said and called upon people to launch a peaceful movement to save the country and help restore deposed judges.

He said earlier at the APC that President Zardari was following in the footsteps of Gen Pervez Musharraf whom the nation had rejected. President Zardari had promised to people that he would restore supremacy of law and the Constitution and strengthen the parliament but instead he had enforced presidential system, he said.

He said that the prime minister was powerless and Pervez Musharraf was a coward general who surrendered to the USA on just one telephone. Musharraf`s hands were tainted with the blood of Muslims of Afghanistan, Prof Ahmed said and regretted that the present government was no different from the previous one because drone attacks had only increased now.

He praised the Malakand agreement and alleged that by hesitating to put his signatures on the agreement, President Zardari was trying to sabotage it.

People would have to take to the streets and participate in the long march to extricate the country from the present crisis and ensure restoration of deposed judges and independence of judiciary, he said.

He condemned torching of shops in Hyderabad and said that innocent Pakhtoons were killed in Karachi as well after raising the bogie of Talibanisation.

The district ameer of the JI, Moulana Abdul Waheed Qureshi, Awami Tehrik president Abdul Qadir Ranto, Sindh High Court Bar Association vice-president Abdur Rehman Shaikh, Shia Ulema Council leader Nizamul Haideri, PML-F leader Nizamuddin Arain, JUI leader Moulana Hifizur Rehman Shams and others also spoke at the conference.

ADMISSION The University of Sindh has announced the last date for submission of forms for admissions to four-month certificate course in Music as March 9.