Up in arms: PAT to resume Qisas Movement from Aug 20

Qadri announces schedule of demos all over the country

LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek on Tuesday announced that its Qisas and National Solidarity Movement would resume from August 20.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the party’s central core committee. It was chaired by Tahirul Qadri. Speaking on the occasion, he said protest demonstrations would be held all over the country from August 20 to August 30.

He said demonstrations and sit-ins would be held in Lahore, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Sibi, Kohat, Dera Murad Jamali, Masehra, Sukker, Dera Ismail Khan and 71 other cities.

On August 21, he said demonstrations would be held in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat among 21 other cities. He said demonstrations would be held in DG Khan, Layyah, Rajanpur, Muzaffarabad and 11 other places on August 25 and in Bahawalpur, Lodhran, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, and 11 other places on August 27.

Qadri said PAT workers in Rawalpindi, Quetta, Karachi, Jhelum, Chakwal, Haripur and 20 other cities would stage sit-ins and demonstrations on August 28.

Qadri said the second phase of the movement would begin with a huge demonstration and sit-in in Islamabad. He said he would address these demonstrations through video link.

Earlier, he said the purpose of holding protests and sit-ins was to seek justice for those who lost their lives in the Model Town riot in 2014. “I can never forget the day when my unarmed and innocent sons and daughters were brutally murdered on the streets of Model Town,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2016.