Qadri's homecoming

Dr Tahirul Qadri has lived up to his promise to land in Pakistan with a bang, except for the difference that he could not land at Islamabad, his take-off point for 'revolution', but at Lahore and drove home in the safe and secure company of governor of Punjab. This, to some of his supporters and most of his detractors, was a huge climb-down. For those political players who lost in the last general elections and have now hitched themselves to him and who were preparing to hitch a ride in the Qadri Trojan horse, it may indeed have come as a big disappointment. Needless to say that the brutality unleashed by the Punjab police on Qadri's party men last week had severely eroded the federal and Punjab government's ability to effectively tackle his arrival. Within the span of a single day the enormous fund of sympathy Qadri had earned in the wake of Lahore police's brutal handling of his workers was frittered away. As the day ended, his political outfit, Pakistan Awami Tahreek, that was nothing but a power-seeking mechanism as any other of the 200-plus registered political parties had in the minds of many, had become a force to reckon with. However, that said the fact remains that this was a day of high-noon dramatics in Pakistan, the right stuff for a violence-packed action film and a telling specimen of ever-changing political liaisons. And as this theatre played out, the country stood standstill, many cities and towns particularly the nation's capital locked down and thousands of ordinary people stranded on roads under scorching June sun. Qadri has promised a peaceful revolution within the parameters of the constitution. No doubt, Qadri's followers are within their constitutional rights to hold rallies wherever they want but then the others in the same country also have the right to their uninterrupted access to their places of work and it is the government's responsibility to plan how their rights don't clash with each other. The government ostensibly was worried about the capital city's security and was at its wits' end how to do it without repeating its police performance in Lahore last week.
But where Tahirul Qadri seems to have succeeded is mundane politics. In addition to the support he had of the Punjab-based PML (Q) the Sindh-based MQM has also come on his side. Given that both Qadri and Imran Khan nurture identical utopian worldviews and want a thorough overhaul of national politics they are also rivals in that arena - no wonder therefore that at this critical juncture the PTI chief didn't show up at the home-coming, a gap expectedly filled up by the MQM in just no time. Even if Qadri's revolution fizzles out, his chances to operate as typical Pakistani politicians do exist and in fact have brightened. Political party, committed workers, countrywide following, Tahirul Qadri has all the ingredients to be an active player in national politics - and to work within the framework of the law and constitution. No doubt it is a time-consuming process - Imran Khan's party took 16 years in spite of its most revolutionary agenda - but it pays at the end. Time we believe is still on Qadri sahib's side and there is also the gap he is ideally placed to fill - to give the people of Pakistan a modern-day religious party option. Doesn't total apathy shown to him and his programme by the religious parties now in the field invite him to come forward and be the missing link? On the face of it, his politics have come a full circle, offering him an opportunity to start afresh this time setting out a goal that's achievable.