Staking a claim: PAT’s agenda is ‘bigger’ than PTI’s ‘tsunami’, says Qadri
The Pakistan Awami Tehrik’s proposed revolution will not be deferred at any cost, according to party chief Dr Tahirul Qadri.
Referring to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s planned long march on August 14, he said that while Imran Khan plans to bring reforms to the electoral process in Pakistan, PAT’s agenda is ‘bigger’ than this. “Only election reforms cannot change the system,” Qadri said at a press conference at the party’s secretariat in Lahore on Thursday. “Although PAT’s revolution is not a tsunami, a tsunami is a small component of the revolution,” Qadri said.
“Even changing the election commissioner five times cannot bring something good,” he added. “The Sharif brothers will purchase the EC all five times in their favour and the poor will die waiting for their constitutional rights.”
Dr Qadri said he is directly in contact with an estimated 100,000 party representatives to ‘finalise the date of the revolution’, adding that the PAT wants to ‘change the whole system of the country’ in line with the first 40 articles of the Constitution.
The present rulers have failed to meet their constitutional duties, Qadri alleged. “The Sharifs do not believe anyone outside of their
own family regarding state affairs and they have done nothing for the poor people of the country,” he said.
Model Town incident
Referring to a judicial inquiry into the police operation against PAT activists in Lahore’s Model Town last month, Qadri said he had always rejected the tribunal’s formation. “In the presence of the Punjab chief minister, no inquiry can be made on merit,” he said. “If the tribunal wants to provide justice, it should have ordered the resignation of the CM.” He added that no FIRs had been registered on the victims’ requests and the tribunal should have ordered these FIRs on the PAT’s complaint.
Qadri claimed that the government has removed the tribunal’s secretary in order to tamper with a record of the proceedings in its favour.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2014.
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The scrupulous and the just, the noble, honest, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement but it passes away from them.They are not the leaders of a revolution but they are just normal citizens.