Leaders of opposition parties to decide next strategy within 2 days what to do next: Qadri

LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan Awami Tehreek Dr. Tahirul Qadri and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan respond to the crowd at Mall Road rally, here Wednesday.

• Sheikh Rashid 'Man of the Match' on announcing to quit NA;
• Mall Road agitation is staged not only by PAT but also shared
• among united opposition parties including PTI and PPP: Qadri
• PAT chief asks his supporters whether they will protest outside
• Jati Umra residence of the Sharif family, crowd replied in 'yes';
• Kamal, Khursheed, Kaira, Elahi, Qureshi and others also speak

Monitoring Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) joined hands to stage a protest against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government on Mall Road in Lahore on Wednesday over the 2014 Model Town massacre.

While Sheikh Rashid stood up as the "Man of the Match" with his resignation call during address, other leaders from the opposition parties also slammed the ruling PML-N government for their negligence to provide justice and indulgence in corrupt practices. Both Asif Zardari and Imran Khan pledged their full assistance for Tahirul Qadri and voiced support for the victims of Model Town incident. Thousands of people from all opposition parties as well as senior leaders attended the massive protest.

Tahirul Qadri once again arrived at the stage to address the protesters. He called Sheikh Rasheed the "Man of the Match" of today after he announced his resignation from the National Assembly. He said the Mall Road agitation is staged not only by PAT but also shared among united opposition parties including PTI and PPP.

Qadri said that the leaders of opposition parties will hold a meeting within two days in which they will decide the future strategy. He asked his supporters whether they will protest outside the Jati Umra residence of the Sharif family, at which they chanted "yes".

PAT chief Tahirul Qadri began his address by saying that the conscience of the nation has woken up.

He said the fact that the opposition parties had joined hands to present a united front has "everything to do with the blood of the martyrs of Model Town", and of Zainab, the minor girl who was raped and murdered in Kasur earlier this month.

Qadri said today the whole political and religious leadership of the country has gathered at Mall Road as proof of the fact that the country has awakened and its conscience has been invigorated.

"We are here to get rid of this modern day Mujibur Rehman," he said, in a reference to Nawaz Sharif, who had recently likened himself to Rehman. "And to keep the judiciary free, and to uphold democracy. and to uphold the sanctity of this country."

Claiming that he had been "persecuted" over the years and "pushed towards revolt",

Sharif had earlier this month drawn parallels between what he considers to be his own 'cornering' by the state and the events that led to the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

"[Former Bangladesh prime minister] Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was not a rebel, but was made into one," Sharif had remarked, referring to the tragic consequences that followed the state's refusal to allow a popularly elected leader to hold the prime minister's office.

Qadri urged the crowd to "wake up" and take a look at the "enemy", referring to the PML-N leaders.

"It is that 'enemy' who is not awakened when our girls remain unsafe... the 'enemy' that does not bring the law into action when a young girl loses her honour."

Qadri said the protesters had not gathered in Lahore to take any steps against democracy but "we want supremacy of the Constitution and law in the country".

"We only want to bring down this sultanat-e-Sharifiya (sultanate of the Sharifs)," he said.

He said the protest is in fact a movement of justice for "Zainab, Shazia, shuhada-e-Islamabad (martyrs of Islamabad) and shuhada-e-Model Town (martyrs of Model Town)".

Alleging that Shahbaz and Nawaz Sharif had accumulated their wealth through corruption, the PAT chief said it was due to the their "character" that one brother (Nawaz) was facing cases in the Supreme Court and the other (Shahbaz) has allegedly turned Punjab police into a "militant wing of PML-N".

He claimed that Rs7.5 billion of the budget had been allocated to the Punjab police in the past few years to provide protection to the Sharif family.

"Why did the police not provide security to my sons and my daughters?" he asked. "Was this country created only for the sultanat-e-Sharifiya?"

He alleged that the Sharifs run Punjab as it were a "business". "While these people are [in power] this country cannot have democracy and supremacy of the Constitution and law," he said.

Qadri said the protesters wish to rid the country of the Sharifs and bring hope to the people.

"The martyrs of Model Town and those of Kasur are the emblems of their oppression," he said, adding that nations which do not raise their voice against oppression end up forgetting their own history.

The district administration had dithered in granting formal permission for the rally till Tuesday night, but did not thwart the arrangements either. Meanwhile, the PAT workers transported a container, hundreds of chairs, large screens to show documentaries of the Model Town incident, and a sound system to the venue. Police, in a way, facilitated the would-be protesters by diverting traffic and keeping the venue clear.

The city traffic police had claimed that The Mall would be officially closed at 12am (Wednesday) but it remained closed for the better part of Tuesday as well, creating hurdles for commuters. The government had further announced that educational institutions - the Punjab University (old campus), the Government College University, the National College of Arts and seven schools - in and around the venue would remain closed on Wednesday.

The Lahore Zoo administration, too, announced that the facility would not open the whole day through.

Police had drawn up a security plan for the day in advance. SP Security Ammara Athar said the venue would have three-tier security, with more than 6,500 policemen and 1,500 wardens being assigned duties. This would be in addition to three companies of the Punjab Rangers, who would be manning 'vulnerable points' along the venue. An upward of 40 walk-through gates would be used and six entry points were finalised, one of these for women participants, she said.

The steering and action committees formed during the Multi-Party Conference had also met to finalise the protest plan. After the meeting, PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri briefed the media on the plan. "There will be one container and one stage, where all the leaders including Imran Khan and Asif Ali Zardari will address the protesters from the same podium," he said.

The protest, he said, would be split into two sessions: one before Maghrib prayer and the second after it. The PAT says such an arrangement is meant to facilitate people during prayer timings though it was rumoured that it was a deliberate plan to arrange separate the addresses of Imran Khan and Zardari.

Speaking at a press conference at his party headquarters in Lahore, PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry also made it clear, "the PTI cannot share the stage with Asif Ali Zardari. That's why it requested for separate sessions for Imran Khan and Mr Zardari and Dr Qadri obliged."

Dr Qadri also told the media that all the decisions had been taken with consensus. "All the parties have agreed on two points: one that Shahbaz Sharif, being the prime accused in the Model Town case in the light of the Justice Baqar Najafi report, must go, and second, the protest would go on till he is forced out of office. We are not asking for his resignation but will force him out of office." PML-Q president Elahi addresses the anti-government rallies, and criticised the ruling PML-N in Punjab over their negligence. "People ask for justice from the Supreme Court Chief Justice when it is delayed," he stated.

Awami Muslim League (AML), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) also take part in the protest that will be staged against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The protest is being viewed as a platform that will be bringing together various political parties including the PTI and the PPP, with leadership of both the parties having exchanged hostile comments against each other in the recent past.

Mustafa Kamal of Pak Sarzameen Party, Khursheed Shah and Qamar Zaman Kaira of Pakistan People's Party, Ch. Pervez Elahi of Pakistan Muslim League (Q), and Shah Mehmood Qureshi of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also addressed the gathering among others.

The protest comes in the wake of the Punjab government caught in the middle of scathing criticism following the brutal murder and rape of a seven-year-old girl in Kasur. Today's protest will also demand accountability from the government over the Kasur incident.