Sharifs must be treated ‘like murderers’: Qadri

Discusses JIT report on Model Town; orders followers to prepare funeral shrouds.

ISLAMABAD: Hours after the Lahore High Court (LHC) upheld a lower court order for the registration of an FIR against 11 people, including the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister, in connection with the June 17 Model Town tragedy, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) modified its demands, saying the Sharif brothers must be “treated by law like murderers”.

“The issue will not be settled by the ouster of the government and rulers. There should be an FIR implicating the Sharif brothers [Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif] in murder,” said PAT leader Dr Tahirul Qadri while addressing his followers 23 hours before the expiration of his deadline to the government.

Qadri gave the government a 48-hour deadline on Monday, asking it to step down or else the PAT’s peaceful sit-in would enter its ‘final phase of revolution’.  “The Sharif brothers should be hanged in accordance with the law, the way a murderer is hanged,” Qadri said in an emotional address as tears rolled down his cheeks. “We would not betray the martyrs of Model Town,” he added.

At least 14 PAT workers were killed and scores injured in clashes with the police in Lahore’s Model Town on June 17. Qadri paid tribute to the LHC judge who upheld the sessions court’s decision and ordered the police to register an FIR against the nominated accused. Before that, however, his speech sounded more like a farewell address to his followers as he said, “I no longer have any yearning to live due to the injustices done to the poor.”

“The poor cannot afford medical treatment, cannot pay utility bills, do not have clean drinking water and cannot even have two meals a day,” he said. “But there are a few hundred people [MPs] who shout every day that democracy should not be derailed.” He added, “Our democracy is one that brings smile on the faces of the poor.”

Qadri discussed the contents of the Joint Investigation Team’s [JIT] report on the Model Town incident and said the provincial chief minister had not ordered the police to ‘disengage’. “I am sure that no court will entertain the government’s plea after today’s verdict,” he added. He said other national institutions such as the armed forces were ‘neutral and not supporting the government’ in the Model Town clash.

Qadri called on those who were not at the sit-in to join his party’s workers in Islamabad. “I know you are sitting at home and shedding tears, but I do not need your tears. I need your blood, so come and join the sit-in,” he said. Addressing those present at the sit-in, he said, “Arrange burial shrouds for yourselves.”

The PAT chief asked security forces, police and FC in the Red Zone, “Will you open fire at the poor?” He then remarked, “They have waved their hands and said they will not open fire.” He said, “Instead of killing the people gathered here for the cause of the poor, you should first fire bullets at me.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2014.