Laughs off possible threats of terrorist attack on rally; Punjab govt denies charges.
Influential scholar and founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI) Dr Tahirul Qadri warned the Punjab government on Sunday against any plans to stop his “million-man march” scheduled for January 14.
If the Punjab government tried to hinder the long march then half of the rally participants will march on Lahore, Dr Qadri said while talking to delegations from lawyers’ and labour organisations at his office in Lahore.
“Around two million people will storm Lahore while the rest will march on Islamabad if the Punjab government tries to stop us,” he warned and said the government would be responsible for the situation.
Claiming that he had no particular issue with either President Asif Zardari or PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Dr Qadri said his critics were trying to drag his agenda towards a non issue.
Dr Qadri called the prime minister’s discretionary fund “a corruption black hole” and said that it was swelling so that the ruling party could spend the money on its constituencies as part of pre-poll rigging.
The MQI chief also thanked Interior Minister Rehman Malik for telephoning him and informing him of possible terrorist threats against his scheduled “million-man march”.
He said that while his earlier intention was to bring about a revolution through the long march, he and his supporters would now be bracing for “martyrdom”.
Senator Rashid hits back
PML-N’s senator Pervaiz Rashid countered Dr Qadri’s warning, saying the Punjab government has stopped no political party from holding public meetings or demonstrations in the province.
He rejected Dr Qadri’s allegations that the Punjab government was impounding vehicles to stop people from participating in his long march, adding that the MQI leader was levelling baseless charges out of a fear of failure.
He said Dr Qadri’s allegations were like poll-rigging claims from a candidate who had lost an election.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2013.
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The status-quo politicians have ruled enough, electoral reforms are a must before these elections, without reforms same old guards will return and serve the nation the way they have done so brilliantly over the past five years!! Same Taliban issued threats to Mr. Nawaz Sharif while he was marching for the Judiciary???
@Cacha: The statements of the major political parties say the otherwise.
If not better he is also not worst than the current rulers and bearers of the corrupt system and status-quo.
Pakistan needs to improve governance and broom away the influences of Army and countries giving aid - both military and financial. The terorrists have taken hold of the country because its governance is weak, corrupt and financially poor. Equally strong has become the clergy in influencing governance affairs. There can't be fair and just effective governace which laden with influences afore said. Japan is also a country that is small in size. But finaciall and otherwise strong. Why can't Pakistan be Japan like? leaders tend to live day to day. Country's interst is last and lost!
No one cares about your long march.. Enjoy your journey to ISB
The Maharaja of Raiwind & The Mayor of Lahore simply don't condone any sort of political rising or freedom of expression. It's an old tactic used by the British Raj
They have spent 80 billion on a single road in Lahore, 120 billion on two actually. This is twice the amount of entire South Punjab budget including flood relief!
Secondly when Pervaiz Elahi left, Punjab had surplus budget and the development was visible from Lahore to Dera Ghazi Khan. Instead of wasting money on laptops, the same money could've been spent to provide primary schools & teachers to rural areas esp. in South Punjab. The beneficiaries would've been at least a hundred times more in number.
Thirdly, going back to The Mayor's son-in-law case, how did he get charged for "jhagra"? The bakery boy did no jhagra but only his job. The appropriate FIR should've been registered for kidnapping and torture - which are unbailable offenses.
Lastly let's take Lahore's development into perspective. Mustafa Kamal did much more development with much less resources in Karachi. Many more bridges/underpasses and sanitation/water pipelines were built. He couldn't take the entire provincial budget for Karachi either yet there is no comparison in the visible work.
This caption says it all: "Laughs off possible threats of terrorist attack on rally" Of course it is a laughing matter and cannot be true. The moulana is right. Most of the targets of the extremist terrorists are ANP, PPP, minorities, smaller sects and women not the rightwing or religious parties. Why would the terrorists change their policy now? Another rightwing leader is only going to reinforce the extremist’s position and interest.