More than 900 party and organisation workers, including some 300 women, had been making arrangements for the event over the last two days. PHOTO: EXPRESS
MULTAN:
“My final contest will be on March 17 in Rawalpindi’s Liaqat Bagh.
I will then tell the nation whether to vote in an election or pursue a revolution,” Awami Tehreek president and chairman of the Minhajul Quran International Tahirul Qadri said on Friday.
He was addressing a gathering in Multan. Qadri presented what he called a 10-point national agenda “for progress and prosperity” of the people of Pakistan.
The agenda seeks devolution of all subjects to the provinces, making 15 to 20 new provinces- each with two administrative divisions. It calls for an end to feudal politics, inheriting political office, feudalism, capitalism and centralisation of powers.
Despite the heavy rain, Qadri stuck to his plan to address a gathering of more than 20,000 at the sports ground. More than 900 party and organisation workers, including some 300 women, had been making arrangements for the event over the last two days.
Qadri started references to the Holy Quran and recalled several events in the lives of the prophets and saints. He said that Pakistan was not created for the ruling elite, but for the deprived. Today, he said, he had the same vision as of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal.
He said in Pakistan, whoever talked about the rights of the poor was declared an alien. And yet, he said, those with properties worth billions of rupees abroad called themselves Pakistani nationals and leaders.
“How are elections justified in a country where people are not provided with equal opportunities,” he asked. He said political power was being treated as an inheritance among the rich and the powerful.
This, he said, was a trend set by corrupt politicians in Pakistan. A poor man, he said, could not even think of contesting an election.
He said the people of Pakistan were forced to pay extortionists just to be left alone.
This, he said, was not the Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam had wanted.
He said foreigners were not a threat to the country. Today, he said, the biggest threat to Pakistan was its leading politicians.
Talking about his party’s strategy, Qadri said he would only contest the elections if this could lead to end of corruption in Pakistan.
“I tried to teach [them] a lesson in the Constitution by reading its Articles 62 and 63, but it seems that no one is interested. I reiterate that the Election Commission is unconstitutional and must be dissolved,” he said.
Qadri thanked his supporters for showing up in the rain and urged them to stick to their demands.
More than 700 policemen were deployed at the sports stadium.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2013.
COMMENTS (8)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Maria, jibber Jabber like your's doesnt seize despite being proven wrong on different avenues.... I think you are out of touch.. by now the whole nation has been unable to witness anyone prove anything but his loyalty to the people of Pakistan! SO far everyone is eating humble pie while the only proven truthful person remaining Tahir ul Qadri! Rule of Nature, innocent until proven guilty! you be busy accusing him and he be busy delivering the people of Pakistan a well deserved REVOLUTION!
The present canadian citizen once a Pakistani don't have the right to derail what Pakistani have in the form of democracy. How many democratic elections have been held in continuity and how many chances have been given to the people of Pakistan to choose genuine representative leadership. The moment, people start thinking about positive change, a villain drops from above and derail the whole process and this time it happens to be Tahirul Qadri. One thing has rock proven by history that there is no short cut to arrive at any success. Improvement in systems and development of democratic system needs time and it is evolutionary process. Tahirul Qadri is playing with the religious sentiments of innocent people who consider him religious saint which he is not at all. He has proved himself over the period of time as a religious exploiter and has made fortune through selling this commodity and misguided Muslim community in this process. Allah may save Pakistan from this Fitna-e-Azam
@Maria:
Just for your information Maria, you're making yourself seem like a fool. He didn't turn to religion, he was always a religious leader, since the 1980s. He was one of the most famous religious leader and people across the country used to watch his islamic teachings programme on PTV from 1983 to 1989. Moreover, he only contested one election himself and that was in 2002, and he was the first person to resign from the NA seat in the history of Pakistan.
You don't write 1000 books after "turning to religion". You need to have knowledge, expertise in the fields to be able to write that much. Stop being in denial and try to understand his message, it's for the betterment of the country. To those why say he "was in a container himself", had he not been in a container and been shot, then you would have said, ohh what an idiot, he writes a fatwa on terrorism and then stands there without any protection and gets himself killed as well as many others with him. Even if we use that logic, surely it would have been easier for him to be sitting at home, but he went out, not for himself but for the people of Pakistan. What is going to gain? He is already popular worldwide, you go syria, jordan, egypt, UK, USA, Canada, France, India, he has a huge following across the world, he wasn't going to gain anything for himself. Also he isn't going to contest elections himself either and he made that decision in 2004, not today.
Can we stop portraying a poor picture of anyone who wants to do something for the betterment of Pakistan? I mean people call him an American agent, then why don't they go and see what he said on the World Economic Forum (WEF) against American policies? Why don't they see his 45 page letter of resignation from the Parliament where he proved that the current set-up is an American puppet? If you want to talk, talk with proof and I mean real proof, not manipulated proof where you take out a few sentences he says and portray that message out of context. Who knew about the enforcement of articles 62, 63, 218(3) before him? Had anyone ever even mentioned that before or spoke of its implementation? We in the UK realise what he has done for us Muslims and Pakistanis, the way he's defended Pakistan and Islam on all forums, there was a time when I heard a lot of propaganda against Dr. Qadri and I wasn't a fan but I researched and found that all propaganda was manipulated and put out of context and from then on I knew that those who do that, only dislike him due to jealousy and his success.
@ahmad sohail: Hiding behind a big thick glass shield in a warm comfortable room while simple people listen to your loud sermons - this is your idea of equality? Shame on you Tahirul Qadri. Please try this in Canada and see how people react to your sermons. You think you can only fool poor Pakistani people?
He has been given one point agenda by the concerned quarters-- Help us defeat PMLN .I hope PTI have a landslide but increasningly it looks unlikely because of its PMLN-centric campaign.Next best is PMLN.Better still; they must join hands against PPP and its allies and against Qadri and company.
“How are elections justified in a country where people are not provided with equal opportunities,” These are the words of Qadri for equal rights while in Islamabad rally the poor people were sitting in cold/rain while he and his family remained in temperature controlled cabin. You should be ashamed of your self.
Tahirul Qadri is now a spent force since he has been exposed to be nothing but an opportunist. A man who worked with the Benazir government and Musharraf has no legitimacy to talk about changing the system- after all he was a failed politician before he realized he could make more money with religion. He then ran off to Canada to claim asylum on the basis of religious persecution only to fly back to Pakistan to try to derail democracy. What needs to apologize to the people in Canada he offended when he said he only became a Canadian citizen to vail himself of free health care and a visa free passport - not because he has any love for Canada. He may have swore an oath of allegiance to the British Queen in order to collect his Canadian welfare money since he doesn't work in Canada but he is not loyal to either Canada or Pakistan.