LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri left London on Sunday to reach Punjab’s capital here on Monday morning via Dubai.

Dr Qadri will be received by the party’s Lahore chapter and the organisers claim they will assemble at least 4,000 activists outside the airport.

From the airport, the PAT chief will lead a rally up to his Model Town home stopping at six points on the way – Bhatta Chowk, Ghazi Road, Qainchi Amar Sadhu, Kot Lakhpat, Akbar Chowk and Faisal Town – to wave to those coming to welcome him and join his procession.

A 150-strong PAT youth force contingent will provide security to Dr Qadri as the party has refused to accept the Punjab police security cover despite threats to him from the extremists as warned by the agencies.

An official communiqué has asked the PAT leadership to purchase a bullet-proof vehicle for the Islamic scholar, who has given a fatwa (religious decree) against the extremists.

A spokesman for the party ridicules the letter saying on one hand the government is urging them to purchase a bullet-proof vehicle and, on the other, it has initiated a case against Minhajul Quran, a sister organisation of PAT, before the registrar of companies for an earlier purchase of a similar vehicle for Dr Qadri.

Referring to Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s statement that Dr Qadri faces security threats for issuing fatwa against terrorism, the spokesman said the fatwa had been issued in 2010 and Rana Sana’s government had tried to remove security barriers around the PAT chief’s residence in a bloody police raid in June last year killing more than a dozen innocent people.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the central working committee of PAT was going on late on Sunday night to frame the agenda the party chief should pursue during his stay in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play