Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran chief Dr Tahirul Qadri’s is addressing the crow after 7-hour deadline to President Asif Zardari and the Pakistan People’s Party-led federal government to dissolve all assemblies expired at 11am Tuesday.
Qadri said a national policy against counterterrorism could not be constituted due to inability of the corrupt political leadership.
He termed the long march peaceful, legal and constitutional adding that similar marches were taken out in the past for the independence of judiciary.
“Only army and judiciary are functioning according to the constitution”, he said.
He dismissed that no one was behind his return to Pakistan and the long march except Allah Almight, Prophet (PBUH) and the people of Pakistan.
Qadri said he would reveal a seven-point democratic agenda in his speech.
Earlier, eight people including police and participants of the long march were reportedly injured when police fired shots in the air to quell the supporters pelting stones at the police while Interior Minister Rehman Malik has alleged long march participants of firing and breaching the red zone.
Television footage showed helicopters hovering over the skies to protect the crowd while capital government agreed to deploy additional personnel to enhance the security.
“Morally, your government and your assemblies have ended tonight,” Qadri Monday night told a mammoth gathering from behind a transparent bullet-proof box erected around a podium, after he had been bustled up the steps by handlers holding up what appeared to be bullet-proof shields.
“I will give you (the government) a deadline until tomorrow to dissolve the federal parliament and provincial assemblies. After that, the people’s assembly here will take their own decision… Their time is up, our time is now,” he said.
“Great sons of the democratic revolution, sons, daughters, scholars, traders, government officials, people from all other walks of life, stay until I tell you to leave,” he said.
“I congratulate the 180 million people of Pakistan who have backed me for the supremacy of law and for establishing a real democracy and ending tyranny, rigging and corruption, for snatching back the rights of the people from the elites, looters, terrorists who have deprived them of their rights,” he said.
Amidst slogans calling for “a revolution”, Qadri demanded the government shift the venue of the sit-in to D-Chowk in front of Parliament House as promised to him earlier by Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
“I will give them (the administration) five minutes to move the stage and the lights to the place of our choice,” he said, adding that he would give the inaugural address of the new “people’s government” in front of Parliament House and not at Jinnah Avenue where the government had permitted him to stage the sit-in.
Qadri said he was on a “Hussaini Mission”, which he would take to its logical conclusion, adding that the “revolution” had begun. “The end of the march is the beginning of the revolution,” he told his followers who had gathered at the venue on a chilly night.
Urging his followers to remain peaceful while heading to D-Chowk, Dr Qadri urged the law enforcement agencies not to create hindrance in their march towards Parliament House.
Earlier, Qadri entered the capital late on Monday night through Faizabad interchange with thousands of his followers.
His sleek black SUV was escorted by several cars of police and other security agencies, followed by charged activists of Minhajul Quran onboard cars, trucks and buses. Dozens of motorbikes were also seen moving with Qadri’s “democracy caravan”.
According to estimates, around 40,000 people accompanied Dr Qadri from Lahore all the way to Islamabad after spending nearly 36 hours on the road. The participants and those awaiting in Islamabad were chanting slogans and flashed victory signs as the convoy passed along Islamabad Express Highway.
From Faizabad, the long march proceeded towards the sit-in venue at Jinnah Avenue in Blue Area, where thousands of Qadri’s supporters welcomed the procession with various slogans and welcome songs.
Upon reaching Islamabad, Dr Qadri tweeted: thanks to God, we have reached Islamabad safely, the caravan of democracy is here’.
According to the Intelligence Bureau around 40,000 people were accompanying Qadri while the Islamabad police put the figure at 35,000. Other intelligence agencies put the number of participants at around 50,000. But according to Qadri, some four million people were present at the venue and another “one million” were coming to the federal capital on foot.
At around noon on Monday, people started reaching Blue Area from various adjoining cities and towns.
Mora than 10,000 people, including a large number of youngsters, remained at the venue to welcome their leader.
Wearing baseball cap inscribed with logos of change, hundreds of female students of Minhaj-run schools kept the environment charged with the slogan, “We want change, we want change”.
Despite unfavourable weather conditions and over 12 hours wait for receiving their leader, the protesters remained organised and charged.
They waved national flags and sang national songs. It was nine degrees Celsius in the city at around midnight but the Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran’s supporters remained unmoved.
“We have no special agenda, we just want to get rid of this government, as we have no gas to light fire, no water to drink, no electricity to read… so we just want change,” said, Amna Ikhlaq, a 19-year-old college student.
She said both governments – the PPP-led federal government and the Sharifs-led Punjab government, had failed to deliver, so it was time for change.
Besides female students, dozens of women with infants in their arms were also seen on the occasion.
“It’s too cold and I know this winter night could badly affect my child’s health, but we will stay here until the real change comes, we are here for revolution and will leave after getting it here,” said Naila Raza, a women who joined the protest march with her husband from Rawalpindi.
The Islamabad Capital Territory Administration had taken stringent security measures to prevent any untoward situation.
Apart from all entry points, huge contingents of police were deployed in and around the protest venue. Hundreds of police personnel, paramilitary soldiers and TMQ volunteers were searching all individuals before letting them cross into the venue.
The entire city, particularly the Blue Area, has been festooned with portraits of the TMQ chief.
Qadri’s supporters say their leader had given a call to them against the current corrupt system.
“The harsh winter night cannot force us to leave the area, we will stay here until this government is not thrown out,” said Khalil Ahmed, who came from Murree.
The government kept the Red Zone complete sealed after erecting a wall of shipping scanners.