Islamabad, May 19 : Lal Masjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi has asked the government end the system of co-education in Pakistan.

In his Friday sermon, Ghazi also called for an end to dance and music shows on TV channels, saying that such programmes were spreading obscenity in society and causing the divorce rate to increase everyday.

He warned that his followers would start picking up intelligence agency officials in Islamabad if the agencies did not stop picking up "innocent citizens".

The cleric said that some elements had declared him a terrorist when he had raised his voice for the enforcement of sharia in the country.

"No one has the courage to say anything to the real terrorists of the world," he said in an apparent reference to the US.

He praised the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridiya students for "their struggle to stop evils in society," saying that madrassas throughout the country could play a vital role in this regard.

"Many people have come to us for registration as suicide bombers. We have stopped them from doing so," he added.

Much has been written both in favor of, and against co-educational institutes in Pakistan. Both the proponents and opponents cite apparently valid arguments to support their view.

Last month, Federal education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi had announced that a co-education system would be introduced at the primary level in Pakistan, and only women teachers would be appointed in such schools under the new education policy.

Qazi further went on to say that the new education policy would promise maximum opportunities to the women in the education sector as they turned out to be better teachers than the males.

He also said that the syllabus had been revised in line with internationally accepted standards. He said the revision would free the syllabus from duplication and biases found in the previous one.

The minister said the Education Ministry had demanded an increase in its allocations for education reforms, adding that the annual Higher Education Commission (HEC) budget was much higher than that of the Education Ministry.

Qazi urged students to choose science and technology subjects as they were directly needed to grapple with current and future challenges.

The Minister also asked students to be confidant and balanced to make a positive contribution to the community and the nation at large.