LAHORE, Oct 22: Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad was denied a boarding card for a Sukkur-bound PIA flight on Monday.

He had wanted to take the flight to reach Jacobabad on Tuesday to lead a rally there to protest at the military government’s permission to the US forces to use Pakistani facilities to mount attacks on Afghanistan. Some other party leaders were, however, allowed to board the same flight.

The JI amir had reached Lahore from Islamabad on Monday morning. Shortly after he dismounted from the plane, he was served with a Sindh government letter informing him that his entry in the province had been banned for 30 days.

A defiant Qazi Husain rejected the ban as illegal and declared that he would challenge the same before the relevant court. He then left for Mansoora and after a few hours’ stay at his party’s headquarters reported back at the passengers lounge for the Sukkur-bound flight. A number of party leaders, workers and media representatives were with him. Some of his supporters raised slogans on his arrival.

When he produced his ticket, however, the man on the counter told him that under instructions from the government he could not be issued a boarding card.

The denial provoked the JI leader to tell reporters it was as if the rulers had started treating Sindh as a territory outside Pakistan. The attitude, he apprehended, would strengthen the hands of those trying to convert Sindh into an independent state.

Lashing out at the government’s permission to the US to use its facilities at Pasni, Jacobabad and Dalbandin for attacks against Afghanistan, he said the policy would accentuate NATO’s influence in the region and make it increasingly difficult for China to maintain links with Arabian Sea and the Central Asian Republics.

He said the people had rejected the policy and it was for this reason that they were protesting in all parts of the country.

Drawing a distinction between Musharraf government and the army, the JI leader said while his party would not like to say anything against the defenders of the country, it would step up its struggle for the ouster of the government.

He recalled that the Punjab had traditionally played an important role in launching struggles against unpopular rulers. He said a movement against the present rulers would start with a rally in Lahore on Oct 28. He hoped that the struggle would be successful.

“The dawn of an Islamic revolution will crack from Lahore”, he said as he boarded the vehicle which took him back to Mansoora.