Dr Qadri eyes polls as PAT goes political

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has decided to enter the next general elections as a political party, Samaa reported.

"PAT will be the largest ever revolutionary political party of Pakistan to contest polls", PAT leader Dr Tahirul Qadri announced while addressing his thousands of workers camped outside Parliament House.

Dr Qadri said that PAT, after winning the polls, would bring about its purported reforms in the country through parliament.

"We will field candidates in both general and local bodies' elections", Dr Qadri said vowing to restore the sanctity of Pakistan's legislature.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan, along with populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, has been staging a sit-in in capital Islamabad since August 15.

Last week he took his protest to Pakistan's largest city Karachi and on Sunday he addressed thousands of people in his home town and Pakistan's second largest city -- Lahore, which is also the home town of Sharif.

Khan and Qadri claim the 2013 elections were massively rigged, local and foreign observers said the polls were credible.

Their followers clashed with police in late August after they tried to storm the prime minister's residence, leaving three demonstrators dead and hundreds injured on both sides.

On September 1, the opposition groups briefly occupied the state broadcaster but the movement has since lost momentum.

Analysts believe the protests have been coordinated by the powerful army as a means of re-asserting its dominance over civilian authorities.

Source: http://www.samaa.tv/

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