Qadri envisions 7 to 9 provinces in Punjab

We will not accept Diyat [blood-money] for any of martyrs of the June 17 Model Town tragedy, says Qadri

LAHORE:

Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr Tahirul Qadri on Sunday spelled out his 10-point agenda for a ‘post-revolution Pakistan’, saying that he will divide Punjab into seven to nine provinces and appoint district chief ministers. “There will be tehsil assemblies and union council assemblies and they will get funds and work independently,” he told tens of thousands of his supporters and followers at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore.

“Our party (PAT) will contest the next election at any cost,” he said, adding that the 10-point agenda will serve as a ‘revolution manifesto’ as well as his party’s manifesto in the elections. He called upon his supporters to start reorganising the party at the union council level and launch membership drives through cellular phones. “Just text your name and union council number at 80027 and you will become a PAT member,” he told the cheering crowds that included men, women and children.

Qadri said that he envisioned Pakistan as a leader in Asia. “My slogan is ‘No Asia without Pakistan’. We will make Pakistan so strong that all other Asian countries will be dependent on it,” he said.

The populist cleric put to rest rumours that his party was cutting a clandestine deal with the government over the June 17 killing of his supporters at the Minhajul Quran International Secretariat in Model Town, Lahore.

“We will not accept Diyat [blood-money] for any of martyrs of the June 17 Model Town tragedy. Our demand is only Qisas [Life for life],” he added.

Coming back to his 10-point agenda, Qadri promised ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ for all. “Everybody will get a house. Everybody will get bread and clothing. Everyone will get a job, while the poor will get kitchen items on half prices. Those earning less than Rs15,000 a month will pay half of their utility bills. Similarly, medical treatment and education will be free for the poor,” he added.

Moreover, the PAT chief said that landless peasants would be allotted five-to-10 acres of land, while women would be provided opportunities to work in home-based industry. “Legislation will be made to ensure nobody declares anyone a non-believer or promote extremism and religious hatred,” he added.

Qadri hit out at the government for its failure to overcome the debilitating energy crisis in the country. “If all nine new power projects of the government become functional, then they will generate 5,094MW of electricity by 2017 and by that time our national demand will reach 35,000MW,” he said.

Giving details of his party’s energy plan, he said that after coming to power his party’s government will all tap all sources, including wind, bio fuel and solar, to generate electricity. “There will be no need for WAPDA as every town, city and district will produce its own electricity,” he added. “We will produce electricity from canals in Punjab and install micro hydro projects of 25MW. Similarly, from Karachi to Gwadar, we will install sea turbines.”

Singling out Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for criticism, Qadri said that he spent “Rs50 billion on just one Metro bus in Lahore. This money could have provided clean drinking water to the whole of Punjab.”

He said that a foreign company has been given the contract of cleaning Lahore city. “Can we not even clean our cities? This is just because the rulers want kickbacks from foreign companies’ contracts,” he added.

Earlier, PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Sahibzada Hamid Raza of the Sunni Ittehad Council, former Punjab governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Allama Nasir Abbas Jaffri, Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali also addressed the procession.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2014.