HYDERABAD, June 22: Jamaat-i-Islami General-Secretary Syed Munawar Hassan has said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) will resist any move to register and audit the accounts of religious schools.

Speaking at a news conference here on Saturday, Mr Hassan said the decision to register the religious schools was taken on the dictation of America and added that these schools were even functioning during the British rule without any hindrance.

He said Gen Pervez Musharraf had no credentials to order the registration of religious schools as he himself was not registered, adding that the nation had registered him only as a soldier.

“How many NGOs and private educational institutions, which were receiving funds from abroad, were registered”, the Jamaat-i- Islami leader asked.

Mr Hassan said the rulers had handed over the country to the FBI. Following the Sept 11 incident, Gen Pervez Musharraf had informed the nation that he was obliged to cooperate with America to protect the independence of Pakistan. But he had surrendered Pakistan to America by accepting all the demands of President Bush and providing logistics and airbases to the American forces, he said. Even the religious seminaries and mosques were not safe from the FBI.

He said the economy of the country, which was supposed to improve after the 9/11 incident, was going down the hill. He ridiculed the claim of the federal finance minister that for the first time in the history of the country five billion dollars of foreign exchange reserves were available in the national kitty. The finance minister himself had admitted that two and a half billion dollars had been purchased from the market.

He pointed out that the exports of cash crops had deceased and no one was prepared to invest in Pakistan. When even the cricketing world was not prepared to play cricket in Pakistan, who would invest in the country, the JI leader asked.

He said America had conquered Afghanistan after waging a war but President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee had conquered Pakistan without any attack as all their demands had been accepted.

He further said the MMA would contest election under one flag and make adjustment of seats with other parties wherever necessary and feasible.