Tahirul Qadri asks army chief to provide justice

Suspends dharna; warns of protest if action not taken

LAHORE: Calling the Sharifs responsible for the 2014 killing of 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers in Lahore, PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on Friday called upon the army chief General Raheel Sharif to provide justice to the victims of the tragedy through military courts.

“It was General Raheel whose intervention made the government register an FIR of the incident and it is General Raheel who can give us justice,” Qadri said, while  addressing a protest sit-in organised to commemorate the second anniversary of the June 17 Model Town incident.



Fourteen PAT workers were killed and dozens sustained injuries on June 17, 2014 during clashes with police after they tried to remove barriers outside Qadri’s residence in Model Town of Lahore.

Qadri said for the last two years, his party had gone from pillar to post for getting justice for those killed and injured during the incident but nothing had happened. Giving an overview of the incident, Qadri said the system has denied justice to all the dead and injured.

He claimed the government, instead of providing justice, tried to buy the victim’s families. “But I salute these people who rejected all these lucrative offers.

“Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who is famous for working 22 hours slept till mid-day on June 17. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and CM Shahbaz Sharif both are responsible for these murders,” he said.

He said the witnesses of murders were turned into culprits and they keep going to courts to get their bails. “We didn’t do protest on the first anniversary but two years have passed and we stand at the same point where we stood on the night of June 17,” he said.

He said, “We want to make Pakistan strong, safe, peaceful, progressive. We want rule of law, socio-economic justice, human equality, institutional solidarity and independence. “However, unfortunately we cannot achieve this aim as long as the Sharifs rule the country,” he added.

Criticising the government for its governance and foreign policy, he said the country had become diplomatically isolated and bogged down in huge foreign loans, which, he claimed, might cripple the country completely if the rulers were allowed to rule for another year.

He claimed that the government was taking its last breaths and would not survive till the coming September.

Qadri speech took a dramatic turn when he asked his supporters if they were prepared to continue their sit-in until justice is served. However, after taking vow from his audience he told them the he would ‘suspend’ the dharna today as one of his party official has promised to the government that it will be a one-day affair.

“However, I warn the rulers that if they continued to deny justice to the victims of Model Town incident, we will within one week notice call such a dharna  that has not yet been witnessed in the country’s history.



Earlier, the APML chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed claimed that the next 100 days were going to be very important in Pakistani politics. “After the Eidul Fitr the very foundations of Jati Umra will be shaken,” Rashid said, in an allusion to the family residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Referring to the PM’s chairing meetings through video link from London, Rashid said the rulers were running the government through internet. He termed the rulers ‘extravagant’, ‘sluggish’ and ‘dishonest’.

He urged the people to come out on roads or get ready to permanent slavery as he claimed the rulers would go to gallows in murder case of the 14 PAT workers.

Speaking on the occasion, the PTI leader Chaudhary Sarwar said PTI leadership had sent him to show solidarity with the PAT workers. “The PTI will support the PAT until it gets justice and murderers of its 14 workers are brought to justice,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2016.