LAHORE, Sept 12: Jamaat-i-Islami amir Syed Munawar Hasan has termed the MQM a fascist organisation that has been holding Karachi hostage and an agent of the international mafia working for the break up of Pakistan.

It was the MQM that had introduced extortion, target killing and body bag culture in the Sindh capital and terrorism in Karachi has no ethnic, racial or factional background, said Mr Hassan at a crowded press conference at Mansoora here on Monday.

He said the MQM, in fact, wanted to harm the independence and solidarity of the country.

He said the MQM, which had been in power for the last 10 years, had always been close to the president. The Sindh governor had been exercising the powers of both the governor and chief minister.

Mr Hasan said the MQM had never warned the government or the nation of any conspiracy to break the country, but it started making hue and cry when its hidden activities had come to fore.

MQM leader Altaf Husain had not responded to questions raised by Zulfikar Mirza, the civil society and the legal community, but he kept the media busy in foul talk for over three hours costing them billions of rupees.

The Jamaat Amir said the nation had clearly recognized the elements who were negating the ideology of Pakistan and terming the country’s history as false.

He said staging a dance while holding the Holy Quran in one’s hand or in front was an act of blasphemy which no Muslim could even think to commit.

He said the Sindh governor was behind the killings on May 12 when the chief justice of Pakistan was held under siege at the Karachi airport and was even hurled murder threats.

On the governor’s orders, roads outside the Karachi airport were blocked by placing containers there. The whole nation had watched MQM workers firing directly towards people, he said and demanded holding of a judicial inquiry into terrorist activities in Karachi, especially on May 12 and April 19.

Mr Hasan urged President Asif Ali Zardari to get rid of MQM’s blackmailing and rule the Sindh province independently. The MQM governor in Sindh must be removed, he said and urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of Altaf Husain’s threats.

The JI chief said Zulfikar Mirza had not divulged anything new about Rehman Malik. Mr Mirza had been repeatedly saying that Rehman Malik was behaving as if he was the Indian interior minister and not that of Pakistan, he said.