ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The people attending the rally of Dr Qadri are either associated with his Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) or followers of his religious teachings.

There is hardly anybody that can be tagged as political worker in true sense. Except for the teachers of the TMQ’s schools and colleges, the rally lacks matured and educated people.

A cross section of the participants present on the occasion, hardly knew about the purpose of the rally.

They told Dawn that they were only ‘clear about their reverence towards Dr Qadri’.

Amjad Noor, a second year student from Gilgit-Baltistan, said he and his class fellows had come to Islamabad on the call of their leader, and would stay here as long he wished. “My leader wants change,” he said. But what change, Mr Noor absolutely had no clue.

When some of participants, who were having their lunch and listening to their leader’s speech, approached said they were here to send President Zardari’s government packing. Suffering from sleeplessness and exhausted, Mr Shuja Ahmad, one of the group members who works for a private medicine company, said he was here to support Qadri sahib, and “we support whatever he is saying”.

Having braved chilly night, a considerable number of participants were found sleeping under the sun, when Dr Qadri was exhorting them not to leave the venue, until and unless, they were asked to.

Do you know what is your leader (Dr Qadri) saying, when middle-aged Mr Arshad Ali from Attock was asked, said: “I don’t understand English. But he is here to help us, and punish corrupt rulers.” A sleeping Mr Luqman, when asked to wake up and listen to what his leader is saying, got annoyed, and cursed the media for negative projection of the rally.

“You people don’t want that Dr Qadri succeeds in his mission, therefore, propagating against the rally,” protested Mr Luqman, adding, the rally would go on despite your (media) assertions.

A group of visibly tired middle-aged women, who had traveled all the way with the rally from Lahore, said they were here to stay as long as Dr Qadri wanted.

However, they were not sure for how long. “We hope, by tomorrow it will be over,” said one of them.

But none of the participants complained of the shortage of food, rather, they were more than happy with the provision of food items they have been given since they started their journey from Lahore.