LAHORE, Jan 7: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Tariq Azim has questioned the Tehrik Minhajul Quran chief to specify who is paying for the transportation and food costs of the four million participants in Qadri’s proposed long march.

At least 80,000 buses will be required to transport the marchers to Islamabad from Lahore on Jan 14 while a couple of thousands more will be needed to carry the 200,000 activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as committed by the MQM, says Mr Azim, former junior information minister in the cabinet of Shaukat Aziz.

According to him, the rent of these buses will amount to around Rs5 billion while another couple of billions of rupees will be needed for feeding these 4.2 million participants, he says, asking who is going to foot the bill of over Rs7 billion.

He also questioned Qadri’s sanity for using piles of cash donated by his followers to launch an attack on democracy in the country.

He claimed that Qadri was still confused about the purpose of his march but was “willing to throw away people’s money for the sake of his ego trip”.

He said Mr Qadri should answer Rs7 billion question instead of wasting time in making accusations against the Punjab government of creating hurdles in the march.