Imran wins Qadri’s backing for November 2 dharna

PPP senator warns govt against torturing PTI workers

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek agreed on Monday to join the November 2 sit-in of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the federal capital, putting an end to a media guessing game about whether or not Allama Tahirul Qadri would throw his weight behind Imran Khan in the ‘final push’ for an independent inquiry into the Panama Papers revelations.

The development came on a day when Khan also received words of support from a central leader of the PPP, the party that has publicly opposed the PTI plan to lock down Islamabad.

“I have told Imran Khan that PAT will participate in his Nov 2 sit-in. Modalities of cooperation between the two parties will be finalised in next few days,” the populist cleric said after the PTI chairman telephoned him. Currently, Qadri is in Jordan. PAT General Secretary Khurrum Gandapur and Raheeq Abbasi are expected to meet PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jehangir Tareen today (Tuesday) to finalise the plan.

“Qadri Sahib has already announced PAT’s decision of joining the protest movement. Details will be finalised in a day or two,” Gandapur told The Express Tribune. “It would be premature to comment if Qadri Sahib would return to Pakistan before November 2 to lead his party at PTI’s protest,” he added.

Gandapur said PAT would join the protest under its Qisas [retribution] Movement initiated in the backdrop of killing of over a dozen party activists in June 2014 during a police crackdown in Model Town, Lahore. PTI has already won ‘unconditional support’ from PML-Q for its protest.

The two parties had also jointly held a marathon sit-in in the federal capital in 2014 in an unsuccessful attempt to topple the Sharif government.

Earlier in the day, Khan claimed that one million people would join him in the November 2 protest as he alleged Sharif of making efforts to isolate Pakistan Army as he called him a ‘security risk’ for the country.

“The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is backing Nawaz Sharif in its agenda to defame Pakistan Army,” Khan claimed while speaking to media persons at his residence in Bani Gala. “India resorts to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control whenever it sees Modi’s friend [Nawaz Sharif] is in trouble,” he added. “Can the prime minister be called patriotic after his attempt to isolate Pakistan Army?”

He said it is the responsibility of the Defense Minister Khawaja Asif to swiftly rebut and respond to the enemies’ statements’ aimed at defaming Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). “However, instead of doing this, the minister is busy defending the corrupt prime minister,” he said.

In a surprising development, PPP senior leader Aitzaz Ahsan said he believed Khan had chosen the right path to hold the Sharif family accountable. “If the government resorted to torture of political workers [of the PTI], then the PPP will also consider its options,” said Senator Ahsan, whose party has publicly opposed the PTI sit-in plan.

Senator Ahsan said some ministers had been misleading the government. “Imran Khan’s is true that none of state institutions have been discharging their duties,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Shuhada Foundation of Pakistan, an organisation linked with Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, announced it was considering supporting Khan’s sit-in.

“The Central Executive Council of the foundation is expected to meet in next couple of days where a formal decision will be taken,” the foundations spokesman, Hahiz Ehtesham, said on Monday. “Time is ripe to get rid Nawaz Sharif,” he added. “Thousands of Shuhada Foundation activists will be part of PTI’s sit-in, if we formally announce support.”

The foundation was formed after the 2007 military operation against the seminary and its prime objective is to fight the legal battle for those affected due to operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2016.