KARACHI – Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Secretary General Liaquat Baloch asserted on Tuesday that neither his party nor other political groups would participate in an all-parties conference called by the MQM, which according to him, betrayed the people and did not carry through its commitments, besides pioneering the menace of killings in the metropolis. Addressing an Iftar party hosted in Lyari by the party’s District South chapter, Baloch held that the coalition government of the PPP, MQM and ANP brought complete annihilation to peace and calm in the city by showing adamant defiance to orders of the apex court and utilising the “Sindh Card” to pursue their indiscriminate aims. “The people have been left at the mercy of anti-state actors, criminals and saboteurs and their lives are in jeopardy.”  In an indirect reference to the MQM, the JI leader said, “The citizens have been forced to live in utter fright and a state of frustration by a political party that had pioneered the scourge of targeted killing. It is now demanding from them Zakat and Fitrana on gunpoint.” Recalling that people of Lyari remained loyal to the PPP right down to its present day leadership, the JI leader alleged that the party always inflicted atrocities on them. “PPP Co-Chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari has punished the brave and honest people of Lyari at the behest of one of his allies, forcing them to march towards a movement that might see an end to their loyalties towards him and his ruling party”. “The future of the youth of this constituent town has been tarnished and made bleak,” asserted Baloch as he rejected the notion that these youngsters were behind the spread of narcotics. “They have been forced to take to drugs under the patronage of the government.” Baloch also said that enemies of the country were bent upon destabilising its economic hub, Karachi, through their touts and agents. Observing that all systems of governance had failed to ensure protection of public rights across the world, the JI leader affirmed that only the Islamic governance system could ensure respect and welfare of people and protection of their basic rights. He added that the holy month of Ramazan gave a lesson of peace, tolerance and brotherhood and provided an opportunity to the Muslims to look after each others’ needs and respect their rights. Baloch, however, insisted that his party was the only political group that had the potential to ensure the riddance of injustices and tyranny imposed on the people by the coalition government. Jamaat-e-Islami District South Ameer Raja Asif Sultan and Deputy Ameer Abdul Rasheed also spoke on the occasion.