Addressing the meeting of PAT Central Working Council on telephone from Makkah, PAT chief Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that the so-called democratic rulers’ fire of revenge is not extinguishing despite martyring 22 workers, injuring 150 of them critically, keeping 25,000 workers in illegal detention and registering hundreds of false cases throughout the country. He said that thousands of religious seminaries refused to get registered with the government and provide details of foreign funding but the government yielded to their pressure and had the audacity to send Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran a notice of cancellation of its registration; a movement that has raised an effective voice against terrorism globally.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that the PAT workers are being arrested, harassed and intimidated even to date from various districts including Okara, Bhakkar, and Shorkot and sanctity of the households is being violated with abandon, which we condemn in the strongest possible words. He said that we appeal to the Army Chief to take notice of this so-called government’s terrorism, a government which is thwarting National Action Plan and vitiating atmosphere of national unity. Dr Raheeq Ahmad Abbasi, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, GM Malik, Jawad Hamid, Sajid Bhatti, Ahmad Nawaz Anjum, Hanif Mustafavi, Fayyaz Warriach, Razia Naveed, Qazi Faiz-ul-Islam, Noorullah Siddiqi and others were present on the occasion.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that the Sharif government is a blot on the name of democracy and as long as they remain imposed on the nation, neither will people’s problems be resolved nor will terrorism be eliminated as they are supporters of terrorists themselves. He said that 50 days have gone by since the Peshawar tragedy but the military courts have not been allowed to start work so far. He said that first of all, precious time was lost by going through the rigmarole of 21st constitutional amendment and now the nation is being made to suffer an inordinate delay in the working of these courts in the name of formulation of rules and regulations. He said that this has provided terrorists with a space to explode bombs and shed the blood of innocent people at will. He said that the nation buried 60 more martyrs in Shikarpur tragedy after Peshawar tragedy but the conscience of the rulers has been in deep slumber.

Dr Qadri said that had intentions of the rulers been real and in the right place, it would have taken them five days to start implementation on the National Action Plan against terrorism. He said that politicking continues in the name of elimination of terrorism and the rulers’ attention remains focused more on making the military courts controversial than on eliminating terrorists. He said that the government has kept the remote control of military courts in their hands to provide a relief to terrorists. He said that not even a single case of terrorism has been sent to the military courts despite passage of 50 days since the decision to establish these courts was arrived at. He said that the government is trying to make the military’s performance and role controversial by using delaying tactics. He said that people’s despondency is increasing by the day. He said that the Prime Minister should answer the nation as to why he did not go to Shikarpur to express sympathy with the bereaved families and share their grief in spite of being present in Karachi where he was busy enjoying sumptuous food in Stock Exchange. He said that the Prime Minister would have flown to Shikarpur in 15 minutes in his special aircraft fuelled by sweat of people including those who were martyred. He said that anger and a feeling of aghast felt by people of Sindh over this discriminatory attitude of the Prime Minister is natural.