Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri pledged on Sunday that he would not rest until the 180 million-strong population of the country is free from the ‘clutches of ruthless rulers’.
Addressing a huge public rally in Bhakkar – from where the PAT is fielding its first candidate, Nazar Abbas, to contest by-polls for Punjab Assembly’s PP-48 constituency – Dr Qadri said a revolution had started in the country and the contest in Bhakkar would lay the foundation of change.
“We have started our political struggle by contesting the by-polls. Now the people should wake up and stop voting for the representatives of the corrupt rulers,” he said, adding that it is a fight for peoples’ rights.
“If we get a two-thirds majority in parliament, we will change the entire electoral legislature,” he said.
Qadri said the top agenda of his party is to empower women according to Sharia by granting them full and equal rights and ending all forms of abuse as well as torture against them.
Dr Qadri also announced that all ethnicities, castes and genders in the country will be given an equal chance to excel in the society and their rights will be guarded according to the Constitution of Pakistan and Sharia.
“We will not allow any group, creed or faith in the country to discriminate against anyone else,” he said, adding that there would be no more business empires, dynasties and feudal lords in the country.
“We will divide the palaces of feudal lords, build homes for the homeless and provide employment for the unemployed,” he claimed
“We will fight to provide justice to every single citizen. The government has crushed all classes of our society but we will bring a change and awareness and people will fight for their rights,” he claimed, adding that his party would provide basic facilities to all citizens of Pakistan especially in the rural areas.
Dr Qadri also announced the PAT’s future strategy of the protests in South Punjab, which, he said, is being grossly neglected by the current government. “We will organise protests against the government in villages and cities and will not let the sacrifices of our martyrs to go to waste,” he said.
The PAT chief said the government was trying to intimidate his party workers by launching FIRs against them. “But we will not be afraid of them now,” he said, adding that his party would hold a major demonstration on November 25 at Daliwaala in Darya Khan tehsil.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2014.
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