Deference: PAT, allies to hold no rallies in Muharram

Elahi says ongoing sit-in in Islamabad will continue

LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) will not hold public meetings and processions during Muharram.

This was decided at a meeting between the PAT and its allied parties at the Model Town residence of PAT chief Tahirul Qadri.

“There will be no public meetings and processions during Muharrum,” Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told the media after the meeting. However, he said the ongoing sit-in in Islamabad would continue.

PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat and Tariq Bashir Cheema was also present at the press conference.

Elahi said a Bedari-i-Awam popular awakening Jashan would be held at the PAT’s sit-in in Islamabad on Tuesday (today). He said Qadri would announce the future strategy with regard to public meetings.

Referring to Qadri’s claim that some cheques given to flood victims by the government as compensation had not been cashed, Elahi said issuing a bogus cheque was a non-bailable crime.

He said that plans for local government elections were also discussed the meeting.

“We will explain our line of action in line with court rulings on delimitation by the Election Commission.”

He denied that there were differences between the PML-Q and the PAT. “We all are together and united,” he said.

“Our allies parties are in contact with one another. We will be together in the next elections because we have to become part of this political process,” he said.

Hussain told reporters some of the cheques that Sharifs had been distributing among flood victims people were dishonoured. “One can be arrested for a dishonoured cheque and held without bail,” he said.

He said some of the victims of 2010 floods had not been compensated so far.

“They are still going around with cheques in their hands. A similar situation has been witnessed in the case of compensation promised to the widows of police officials slain in the line of duty,” Hussain said.

“The rulers say they have distributed 94,000 cheques… I think at least 50,000 cases should be, therefore, registered against them.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2014.