PML-Q offers Qadri two options - cancel or postpone rally

Chaudhry brothers meet MQI chief, assure him that govt is considering demands.

Our Correspondent January 12, 2013

Interior minister to register a case against Dr Qadri in the event of a terrorist attack during his long march.

LAHORE: With pressure mounting on influential religious scholar Tahirul Qadri, the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) urged the Minhajul Quran International (MQI) chief to either call off his long march scheduled for January 14, or to at least revise its planned date.

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi met with Qadri at his residence in Model Town, Lahore, and conveyed to him that if nothing else, he should delay his rally because the government was seriously considering his demands.

After their meeting, the three held a joint press conference. Shujaat said that he met with Qadri with the support of the federal government’s allied parties, in order to negotiate with the MQI chief. He said that on Thursday night, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and all allied parties’ leaders assigned him with this task.

While Shujaat struck a reconciliatory note and said that ‘he hoped’ both parties would reach consensus soon, Qadri maintained that such talks should not be understood as tantamount to him calling off or postponing his long march.

The MQI chief added that negotiations would be ongoing even till the day of the march itself, saying that his rally would be concluded in Islamabad ‘at the negotiating table’. The PML-Q president, meanwhile, assured that the government would try to fulfil his demands before the rally, or even while it was on its way to the capital.

When asked why the government had waited so long to talk to Qadri, Shujaat avoided answering the question, although the MQI chief chimed in saying it had done so ‘too late’.

In response to a query about Qadri’s demand for imposing a caretaker setup, Pervaiz Elahi said that although the current assembly ends on March 16, the Constitution does allow for assemblies to be dissolved before that.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2013.