PAT to hold rally as Qadri arrives today

Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) will hold a public rally in Lahore to demand justice for the Model Town martyrs as Chairman Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri is scheduled to land in Lahore on Tuesday (today). 

The PAT has invited opposition parties to participate in the rally at Nasir Bagh. Secretary General PAT Khurram Nawaz Gandapur contacted Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed who assured his participation in the rally. Several parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PML-Q have also been invited. According to the PAT press statement, the party’s central Core Committee finalised the arrangements of reception including the route on the arrival of Tahir-ul-Qadri in Lahore on August 8. He will be taken to the shrine of Data Sahib straight from Allama Iqbal International Airport where he will offer optional prayers on the disqualification of former prime minister, lay the floral wreath at the grave of the Sufi saint and distribute food among the deserving people. 

Briefing the media after the meeting of the Core Committee, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said thousands of people will join Dr Qadri at the shrine of Data sahib on August 8. He said the perpetrators of Model Town massacre would not be able to remain at large for a long time now as their names are numbered. The PAT secretary general said that had Nawaz Sharif resigned from his position before the decision of the disqualification, probably he would have been left with some honour. He said as long as PML-N has governments in federal capital and Punjab, the clerks, Patwaris, and low government officials will continue to be brought on roads to ‘welcome’ the disqualified leader.

He added that no one will even identify them after their government comes to an end. He said that the nation wants to see them meeting their logical end, adding that they were disqualified in the Panama case but Model Town case will culminate in their end. Khurram Nawaz Gandapur strongly condemned the character assassination campaign unleashed on PTI Chairman Imran Khan and the maltreatment of Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid in front of the Parliament House. He said that it is not graceful for men to use women as their shield for political purposes.