LAHORE: The ‘killers’ of Model Town were now facing the music and any leniency shown to them will translate into dangers for the country, says PAT chief Tahirul Qadri.

Reacting to the possible arrival of Nawaz Sharif, Qadri said he had defended heinous act of killings at Model Town and created hurdles in the way of justice.

In a telephonic address to Central Core Committee of the party, he said on June 23, 2014, his plane was diverted to Lahore, instead of Islamabad. The entire province was sealed with containers on his arrival, thousands of PAT workers were detained and jails of Punjab were turned into torture cells, so they could not reach airport to receive him.

“Now the PML-N says it believes in peace and its workers should not be detained. I had not violated any law, even then my workers were not allowed to reach the airport to receive me,” he said.

“Despite 14 killings, hundreds of injured workers, and burden of dozens of fake cases of terrorism, none from the PAT leaders has ever said anything negative against dignity of state institutions. They are still begging for justice. Nawaz is a national culprit and he has become a liability, jail is a permanent abode for him to pass rest of his life. The PML-N is not a political, democratic party but just a group of plunderers who has somehow acquired wealth, mostly through illegal means. Killer of Model Town, Shahbaz wants to save a convict from arrest in the guise of welcome and wants a clash between his party workers and state bodies. They want to create turmoil, so they must be dealt with iron hands. Any leniency with Nawaz will be at the cost of national security and he must be dealt with like Altaf Husain,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2018