Exclusive: Dr Qadri invites Imran to join his sit-in

I invite Imran Khan to join long march so the forces wanting change can unite, says Qadri.

ISLAMABAD:

“If the change does not come now, it will not come after the election either,” says Dr Tahirul Qadri, the Minhajul Quran International chief who, along with tens of thousands of his supporters is staging a sit-in outside Parliament House.

In an exclusive interview with Express News, Dr Qadri also invited Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan to join his dharna.

He said that the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaaf was like his party as they also wanted change. “I invite Imran Khan to join long march so the forces wanting change can unite.”

Dr Qadri further said that the Supreme Court verdict had justified his movement, adding that the rulers would have to surrender in a day or two.

He was referring to the court’s order calling for the arrest of all accused in the rental power plants case, including Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

The cleric said that if it were any country other than Pakistan, the prime minister would have resigned even before the court’s decision.

He further said that his struggle was against “fraud democracy”. “People of our nation have been slaughtered as if they were goats or sheep,” he said.

Talking about his ongoing sit-in outside Parliament, the Minhaj-ul-Quran International chief said that his workers were fired upon when they tried to remove containers from the roads and called for those responsible to be arrested.

“When our long march is peaceful, why they are erecting barriers?” he asked.

Dr Qadri further said the people who had come to support his mission had come with their free will.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2013.