LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) founder Dr Tahirul Qadri has decided to keep his party distanced from its ‘cousin-in-protest’ Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and directed the PAT leaders to desist from taking sides in the ongoing tussle between the PTI and the government.

“Dr Tahirul Qadri has strictly prohibited all office-bearers from issuing statements against any party in the prevailing political situation of the country,” sources tell Dawn.

They say that the party leaders have also been barred them from expressing opinions in favour of or against any side through electronic, print or social media.

The direction came during a discussion with the central PAT leadership through video link on Friday, the sources say, quoting Dr Qadri as saying that the country is passing through a serious economic crisis and it is not a right time for politicking and conflicts. Rather every citizen should play a positive role in such a situation so that a way out to resolving the crisis may be found, they add.

Qadri forbids all leaders from issuing statements against any party

“The current economic situation is worrisome and that I’m foreseeing multiplication of the miseries of the masses; therefore, all PAT leaders and workers should desist from politics of confrontation.”

PAT and PTI had jointly taken out a long march on Islamabad back in 2014 to seek, what they said, was justice in the June 17 Model Town tragedy in which 14 activists of the former were shot dead in a police raid on the party offices in Model Town, Lahore.

Both the parties had staged protest sit-ins in the federal capital on the issue. PAT had ended its protest after 70 days but the PTI continued it for 126 days until the Peshawar APS massacre by terrorists.

PAT supported the PTI in the 2018 polls that saw the latter come into power. Differences began to emerge among the two parties when the PTI evaded the provision of promised justice to the Model Town tragedy victims.

Meanwhile, Dr Qadri was quoted as saying that his politics was based on forging unity and promoting education.

“Ours is an educational revolution. Our mission is to revive moral values in society. Our struggle is for the cause of eliminating hatred,” he emphasized.

He said the workers should rather devote their energies towards his target of establishing 25,000 centres of education in five years because the destination of prosperity and peace in the country could be achieved only through an educational revolution as there’s no shortcut available to that effect.

The PAT founder urged the party activists to become a voice for the people at local body level, focusing their attention on serving the masses, considering politics as worship and protecting themselves from the stains of chaos and hatred. He called for restoring the values of tolerance, moderation and harmony in the political arena and eliminating the politics of blame game.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2023