LAHORE: “The target of bringing the entire opposition leadership on a single stage was successfully achieved on Wednesday and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) was fully satisfied with the results, says Tahirul Qadri, head of the party.

Addressing the party’s core committee meeting on Thursday, he said mass movements were recognised by the power of their popularity and “our opponents are well-aware that we do have that power”.

“So far, we have put our protest for justice in the first gear. Soon, a clear strategy will be decided and movement would gather momentum,” he claimed. “We are just assessing how much force we need to apply and when? Counting chairs is not our problem, whatever popular strength is needed, will be managed,” he said.

He thanked all opposition leadership and their workers for participating in the protest and said that he was satisfied with the start of the protest movement for justice, and for next course of action steering committee meeting would be called soon.

The PAT chief said it was heartening to see that all opposition parties joined hands against “killer Sharifs”.

“The parties have every right to have their own agenda, ideology, manifesto and politics, but their joining hands for the justice in Model Town incident was a positive development. The Nawaz League was an extremist party as proven by their dealings with banned organizations. In fact, the Sharif brothers can stoop to any level for power and plunder, can even shed blood of innocents as they did in Model Town in June 2014,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tahirul Qadri called meetings of the central executive and federal council for January 27 and 28 for finalising next course of action of the protest movement.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018