LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri on
Thursday made addition to his earlier three demands as he now wants
immediate arrest and physical remand of all those involved in Model Town
incident and recovery of weapons of offence from them.
For
the last few weeks, Qadri has been insisting on three demands, ie
resignation of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana
Sanaullah, temporary removal of suspected bureaucrats and police
officials from active duty and formation of a joint investigation team
(JIT) on the pattern of the Panama Leaks.
Though he
avoided any specific date and plan for his protest movement, which he
was expected to announce, he asked the PAT workers to stay on toes for
such a call.
“Both the PPP and the PTI are sitting on my
left and right, soon the JI will also be on board – for a movement,” Mr
Qadri claimed while addressing a lawyers’ convention at PAT Secretariat
in Model Town.
“Today, the lawyers’ community has put
its weight behind us, which would give new energy to our plans. We have
already staged two sit-ins (for the removal of government), the third
one would be decisive.”
Referring to the comments of
National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in which he reportedly said that he
was frustrated with politics, Mr Qadri said that if he (Sadiq) was
disappointed with politics, the PAT was disillusioned with the
government and governance. The Sharifs had been using state institutions
for personal gains. “Had these institutions been working, today
labourers, farmers, traders young doctors, lady health workers clerks
and visually impaired could not have been protesting on the roads.”
Addressing
the convention, the lawyers, including retired Justice Javed Nawaz
Gandapur, Amer Saeed Rawn, secretary general of the LHCBA, and Rashed
Javed Lodhi, vice-president of the LBA, expressed support to the PAT.
