HYDERABAD, Sept 23 Jamaat-i-Islami secretary- general Liaquat Baloch has said that if Pervez Musharraf is granted protection due to an “unholy alliance” between civil and military establishment and foreign powers, the nation should be prepared to witness extra-constitutional interference in the affairs of the country again.

He alleged that the rulers were in the control of those foreign powers which had provided guarantees for Pervez Musharraf. He alleged that the government was also under pressure to bring about amendments to the blasphemy laws.

Mr Baloch was talking to journalists at an Eid Milan party organised by the local chapter of the JI here on Tuesday.

To pacify Balochistan, it was imperative that Pervez Musharraf should be tried for the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, missing persons should be recovered and target killings of Baloch leaders should be stopped forthwith, he said.

Economic rights of Balochistan should be acknowledged and preference should be given to the backward areas while announcing the National Finance Commission award, he added.

He alleged that civil and military bureaucracy was subservient to foreign powers and they were implementing foreign agenda. He said that the rulers and bureaucracy were united in protecting General Musharraf.

Answering a question about the sense of deprivation among the people of Balochistan, he said that President Asif Ali Zardari had apologised to the Baloch people and committees had been constituted to redress their grievances but no practical steps had been taken in this regard therefore Baloch people were angry.

He criticised the Punjab governor for his statement about amending the blasphemy laws and said that President Asif Ali Zardari had held out an assurance in the US that Christians and other minority communities would be provided protection against the blasphemy laws.

He said that the government was being pressurised to exclude the Objective Resolution from the Constitution, but warned that the nation would resist any move in this regard.

Mr Baloch said that Pakistan was an ideological Islamic state and the rulers would not be allowed to tamper with the constitution.

Answering a question about the JI's “go America go movement”, he said that it was against external interference in internal affairs of the country.

EID MILAN Earlier, speaking at the Eid Milan party, Mr Baloch said that the USA had lost war in Afghanistan and alleged that now it was constructing a “cantonment” in Islamabad to spread the war throughout the region.

He held the government responsible for flour, sugar and electricity crises.

Statements about doing away with the 17th amendment and granting autonomy to the federating units were tantamount to giving a lollypop to the nation, he said, and added that the rulers were not sincere as far as Kashmir cause was concerned.

He stressed the need for unity among the political and religious parties to protect the country. He said that the powers that be were busy in looting and plundering national wealth while the masses were living in abject poverty, adding that nobody's life, property and honour was safe.

He said that the rulers were trying to convert the Pakistan of Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal into a secular state.

He said that an imperceptible propaganda had been unleashed on electric media and through information technology to misguide the youth and distort Islamic values.

He said that the industrial and agriculture sector were being destroyed and capital was being transferred abroad because of wrong policies of the government.

Abdul Ghaffar Umer, Moulana Abdul Waheed Qureshi and Dr Saifur Rehman also spoke on the occasion.