HYDERABAD, Feb 21: Demanding return of the army to barracks, the secretary general of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Syed Munawwar Hassan, has said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal wants to restrict the role of the army as defined in the Constitution.

He was speaking at a one-day training course, organized by the local chapter of the JI here on Sunday. Mr Hassan said that over the past one year, 1,360,000 people had been rendered jobless and over past five years, nine million people had fallen to poverty in the country.

He said that the MMA was an alliance of conscientious people and this was the reason that it had become an eyesore for the rulers and political parties supporting them. The JI leader said that Shaukat Aziz was a prime minister only in the name and he did not possess the qualifications required for the office.

He said that Mr Aziz was the only finance minister in the history of Pakistan who had presented five consecutive federal budgets and added that it went to his credit that during the first budget, poverty in the country stood at 28 per cent and now it stood at 44 per cent.

He ridiculed the claim of the government about massive investment in the country and said that the State Bank's report did not support the claim. He said that over the past three years, three prime ministers had been changed but none of them had the courage to talk about the supremacy of law and the Constitution.

He said that law and order situation in Karachi had deteriorated to such an extent that Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and even Sri Lanka had refused to play cricket there.

He said that the army had never been deployed on the Afghanistan border since the inception of Pakistan but presently 100,000 army personnel had been deployed there and ironically, Pakistan continued to be blamed for interference in that country.

Criticising the government for its Kashmir policy, Mr Hassan wondered if the atrocities against the hapless Kashmiri people would be stopped by India after introducing a bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar.

He said that that India should withdraw its forces from Kashmir, release Kashmiri prisoners, repeal black laws against the people of Kashmir and pay compensation to them for destruction of their property.

He further said that before holding of a dialogue on Kashmir, international media and human rights organizations should be allowed to take stock of the situation in the occupied Kashmir.

Referring to the plight of the Muslim people, he claimed that over the past 30 years, 10 million Muslims had been martyred throughout the world though none of them belonged to any army.

JOURNALIST GRIEVED: The mother of senior journalist Zahir Ahmed died here on Sunday after prolonged illness. The funeral prayer was led by Mr Hassan and attended by a large number of journalists, political leaders and traders.