Founding leader of Minhaj ul Quran International and Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has greeted the people of Pakistan including the overseas Pakistanis in particular and the world community in general at the advent of 2014. In his felicitation message on the eve of New Year, he said that it is an occasion to review our past conduct both individually as well as collectively and make fresh resolve to make amends for our behaviors. He said that it is time to set some specific goals before us and chart out a workable strategy to translate those goals into reality.

Dr Qadri said that the world had a manifest challenge to defeat all such elements who wanted to sow the seeds of mistrust, discord and misunderstandings among various cultures, civilizations and faiths. He said that as the international community was welcoming the dawn of 2014, threats to peace remained formidable with the potential to harm the spirit of diversity, inclusiveness and integration if the followers of various faiths did not come on a single platform and carve out a consensual strategy to thwart the designs of anti-peace lobbies on either side of the equation.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that humanity had a shared stake in future irrespective of any discrimination, adding that secure and prosperous future of our children warranted that we rose to the challenge in a spirit of togetherness. He said that building bridges among our cultures and religions was a noble cause worthy of investment of our energies and time. He said that Minhaj-ul-Quran International would continue to work for promotion of peace, interfaith harmony and dialogue among various cultures.

Addressing the people of Pakistan in his message, Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that year 2013 was very eventful. He said that the month of January 2013 was witness to historic Long March and sit-in in front of Parliament House at D-chowk Islamabad where the people of Pakistan, belonging to all walks of life including men, women and children of all ages, used their democratic right to press for constitutional reforms ahead of elections. He said that this peaceful display of people’s power at such a massive scale stunned all and sundry, and friends and foes including the all-powerful ruling elite, adding that this event also set the course of national politics in altogether different direction.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that issues such as Articles 62, 63 and 218 of the Constitution, which were never talked about in the past, became household stuff for public debates, thanks to the Long March and sit-in. He said that the way people braved chilling cold and rainy weather and remained encamped for their demands brought home this message crystal clearly that the incumbent system was incapable of delivering and resolving people’s problems because it was tailor-made to protect interests of the tiny elite. He said that the PAT protest rally on December 29 by year-end, the largest ever gathering of people in the provincial capital, yet again reminded that the masses were convinced of PAT’s message of peaceful and democratic revolution. He said that the rally reflected a yearning for thorough and comprehensive change.

He asked the workers of PAT to make a resolve to take their message of revolution to every nook and corner of the country. He said that we were committed to restore fundamental rights of people and make Pakistan the country of the Quaid-e-Azam’s ideals. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that there was no denying the magnitude of the challenge but added in the same breath that even mountains moved before the human resolve. He said that time for change was ripe and it was on the workers to accelerate the process of bringing about change.