Daily Times

Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief, Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri, while
addressing a protest sit-in at the Mall Road, Lahore called upon Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to provide justice through military courts to the 2014 victims of the Model Town tragedy. Dr Qadri held both Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif responsible for the incident, and requested General Sharif to provide justice to the families of victims, emphasising that it was the general’s intervention that had made government register an FIR of the incident in the first place. The sit-in was organised to commemorate the second anniversary of the June 17 Model Town incident in which 14 people including women were killed, and dozens were injured in clashes with the police, after the police had tried to remove barricades from outside Dr Qadri’s organisation’s head office in Model Town. Dr Qadri while addressing the crowd said that his followers should be ready for a prolonged sit-in after the Eid if the authorities do not provide justice until then.

The sit-in at the Mall Road led to the closure of almost all business there as most of the roads linking to the Mall Road were blocked by law enforcement authorities. Government agencies had warned traders of the danger of some untoward incident during the sit-in, which compelled many shop and office owners to close for the day, thus incurring unquantified loss in revenues and business.

The attitude of government authorities has been the same in past two years, having continuously maintained that they were working on the case, and justice would be provided to the victims. Some ministers have even dismissed the recent address of Dr Qadri as a political gimmick, as he is accused of using the very unfortunate incident for political gains. On the other hand, Dr Qadri has accused the system that has, to date, denied justice to victims. Despite blame games from both sides, there has not been much progress in capturing the culprits of the incident. Both parties have continued to blame each other of sabotaging the process of investigation. Although government has been under pressure after the incident, it should have taken steps to avoid the escalation of the issue. Continuous delays in the formation of an investigation commission and trading of barbs have been the only outcome of demand for justice from the plaintiff’s side until now.

The stance of the government that Dr Qadri is cashing in on the issue does have some weight in it as the cleric has rarely visited the country in past two years since the protests in Islamabad ended. Moreover, he has been issuing statements from abroad for the overthrow of government rather than staying put in Pakistan, and pursuing the cases in the courts through legal procedures of the country. Dr Qadri has claimed that he and his party dream to make Pakistan strong, safe, peaceful and progressive. How is it possible when the chief himself rarely visits the country he vows to revolutionise by changing the system? While there is nothing morally wrong with having dual citizenship, the claim to be a stakeholder in country’s political future is a tad ludicrous when you are a resident of another country, and merely an infrequent visitor to yours. Moreover, expecting people to come out on the streets in this scorching heat for political gains, while sitting in air-conditioned containers doesn’t bide well with calls for revolution. Moreover, calls for a military intervention into the issue is not going to take the country anywhere.

Sadly, the victims of the Model Town incident still await justice from the authorities. All the parties should avoid cashing in on the issue; rather, they should strive to provide justice to the grievers through the legal system. Pakistan in its present state of multiple crises is in no position to afford a political siege-like situation as was witnessed during the 2014 protests in Islamabad. And all who wish to revolutionise Pakistan through methodical anarchy should think twice before embarking on an agenda of vested interests and personal political gains that Pakistan is in no position to withstand any effort to destabilise it. Pakistan needs pragmatic leadership that despite its differences has the ability to look beyond its own interests to work for that one entity that is ignored by most power-seekers: Pakistan.*