LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri on Thursday made addition to his earlier three demands as he now wants immediate arrest and physical remand of all those involved in Model Town incident and recovery of weapons of offence from them.

For the last few weeks, Qadri has been insisting on three demands, ie resignation of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, temporary removal of suspected bureaucrats and police officials from active duty and formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) on the pattern of the Panama Leaks.

Though he avoided any specific date and plan for his protest movement, which he was expected to announce, he asked the PAT workers to stay on toes for such a call.

“Both the PPP and the PTI are sitting on my left and right, soon the JI will also be on board – for a movement,” Mr Qadri claimed while addressing a lawyers’ convention at PAT Secretariat in Model Town.

“Today, the lawyers’ community has put its weight behind us, which would give new energy to our plans. We have already staged two sit-ins (for the removal of government), the third one would be decisive.”

Referring to the comments of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in which he reportedly said that he was frustrated with politics, Mr Qadri said that if he (Sadiq) was disappointed with politics, the PAT was disillusioned with the government and governance. The Sharifs had been using state institutions for personal gains. “Had these institutions been working, today labourers, farmers, traders young doctors, lady health workers clerks and visually impaired could not have been protesting on the roads.”

Addressing the convention, the lawyers, including retired Justice Javed Nawaz Gandapur, Amer Saeed Rawn, secretary general of the LHCBA, and Rashed Javed Lodhi, vice-president of the LBA, expressed support to the PAT.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2017