In a major development, Dr Tahirul Qadri, who is looking forward to holding Pak-istan Awami Tehreek (PAT) rallies in Karachi and Lahore, directed his followers on Friday to leave Islamabad sit-in and go back to their respective towns and village until further orders.
Dr Qadri told his supporters staging anti-government protest sit-in outside Parliament House that the venue of landmark public meeting in Karachi would be the Mazar-e-Quaid, but refused to disclose a date for the rally at this point in time. A date would be announced as soon as we arrangements for the rally to be made, Qadri said. He announced that he is turning PAT into a political party which will contest elections to bring about a change in the country. He said he would go to all four provinces to convince masses to join the movement for a revolution. He announced that he will hold public gatherings in Faisalabad on October 12 and in Lahore on October 19 at 'Minar-e-Pakistan'. The PAT chief further said that he would contest elections to "smash the idol of corrupt system."
Announcing his manifesto on the occasion, Qadri said that every Pakistani would be provided with food, clothing, shelter, education, employment and justice. He said the important point of his manifesto is that powers will trickle down to grass-roots and women will enjoy a better status in society.
Qadri further said that he will announce the schedule of later public gathering during his Lahore rally. He also criticised the federal government for ignoring the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan Agency. They are not being provided with food, shelters and cash grants, according to him.
He said the parliament has failed to deliver. He recalled that one and half years back, Senate approved a resolution and asked the prime minister to appear in the Upper House, but he failed to appear before the House so far. He further said he resigned from membership of the National Assembly in 2004 after he realised that all the important decisions were made outside the parliament. Parliament is not playing its role to resolve the problems of the people, according to him.
Talking about his future plans, he said he will visit cities personally.
He said he launched an awareness campaign ten years ago to awaken the people "from deep slumber of ignorance." Referring to his previous 'long march', he said it helped educate people with regard to Articles 62 and 63 of Constitution.