Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chief Tahirul Qadri on Monday announced to launch a countrywide campaign against the government from January 17.Addressing a press conference after chairing a meeting of the Steering Committee formed on December 30 at the All Parties Conference (APC), Qadri said: “Now we will not ask Shehbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah to step down, but will get their resignations forcibly.”

Qadri regretted that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah were “given a seven-day deadline to tender their resignations, but they failed to do so”.

“We will hold them (PML-N) accountable not only for the martyrs of Model Town, but for entire Pakistan,” Qadri said.

The PAT chief said that the incumbent government had lost its moral standing and should have been dissolved. “Now we will kick off nationwide protests in a bid to topple the PML-N government,” he said.

The Steering Committee comprises members from Pakistan People Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), PAT and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).

The action committee has been formed to review administrative work of the protest campaign. Its first meeting will be held on January 11, he said. “We have all options open as we seek an end to their oppression,” Qadri added.

Qadri went on to say that all announcements were being made in consultation with all parties that participated in the APC on December 30.

The PAT chief warned that protests would not stop until the entire PML-N government was finished.

Earlier, the Steering Committee of opposition parties over Model Town tragedy met on Monday. The meeting agreed not to extend the deadline for Punjab chief minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah to resign. It decided that protests were the way forward for the opposition.

Dr Tahirul Qadri presided over the meeting of opposition leaders to decide over party’s course-of-action.

The participants agreed to lodge protests against ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for Model Town massacre on July 17, 2014.

Fourteen people were killed and 100 others injured when police launched an assault on supporters gathered outside Qadir’s residence in Model Town, Lahore in 2014. “The PML-N is directly complicit in the tragedy,” the joint declaration issued after the conference had read.

Published in Daily Times, January 9^th 2018.