LAHORE: Postponing his call for a ‘revolution march’ to an appropriate time, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri said on Sunday that his party would observe Aug 10 as ‘martyrs’ day to pay homage to the victims of the June 17 Model Town incident.

The announcement was made by Dr Qadri at a meeting of the party’s general council. Leaders of the PML-Q, Sunni Ittehad Council, Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen and representatives of minorities were present on the occasion, but they were not invited to be with the PAT chief on the dais, but were seated beside it.

Dr Qadri said the case of Model Town ‘massacre’ was being fought in Lahore while that of suppressing the economic, social and political rights of the 200 million people would be contested in Islamabad, a reference to PTI’s march on the federal capital on Aug 14.

He said Quran Khawani for the 14 party activists killed in the June 17 police raid on the central offices of Minhajul Quran, a sister organisation of the PAT, would be held in a peaceful manner but warned that the assurance about observing the day peacefully would stand annulled if the government tried to harass and arrest its participants. The venue will be shifted from Model Town to “Raiwind estate of the Sharifs” if the government tries to disrupt the programme.

He asked police not to carry out ‘unlawful’ orders of the rulers and warned them of a tit-for-tat response in case of ‘abuse’ of powers. Policemen must act cautiously, he said and warned them of the same treatment meted out by them to PAT workers. “Beware that your protectors will no more be there in power.”

Dr Qadri asked his workers to prepare lists of policemen who might mistreat them. He directed them to resist any crackdown and bring the policemen forcibly entering their homes to the Quran Khawani function.

He said PAT’s patience should not be taken as a sign of weakness. He predicted that he would bring about his ‘revolution’ before the end of August and asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to decide which government, the one at the centre or in Punjab, should go first. “It’s up to Nawaz Sharif to decide who will leave his office first, he or his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif.”

The PAT chief regretted that the heirs of Model Town victims had been running from pillar to post for two months to get justice but even their FIR against the accused was not being registered. He alleged that some of the accused had been allowed to go out of the country and vowed to avenge the blood under the Islamic law of Qisas.

Addressing the western countries supporting the current dispensation in the name of democracy, he asked if any government there could have survived a Model Town-like incident there.

“The incumbent government and the current governance system are neither constitutional nor democratic because under it people are not enjoying the rights which are granted even to animals in the West,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2014