Dr Tahirul Qadri’s movement should not be considered to be a purely Western initiative as he has been promoting Pakistan’s interests and preaching his interpretation of Islam for a very long time, Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto Chairperson Dr Mubashar Hassan told Pakistan Today.
While people are still busy trying to make sense of the objectives of the long march and the way it ended, the veteran politician, in an exclusive talk, shared his observations. Hassan believes that Qadri’s sudden and overwhelming intervention in the political arena has served to strike a ‘mortal’ blow to President Zardari’s tottering government and brought politics out on the street in the form of a ‘dharna’ as an effective tool. It has also served to change the country’s political climate, led people to champion a non-extremist and a pacifist leader and allowed other leaders like Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to support his cause and overshadow Zardari. Moreover, the long march set the Election Commission of Pakistan, the gargantuan task of sorting out ‘sadiq’ and ‘ameen’ candidates from the pool. However, Hassan said the thorough research evident in Qadri’s December 23 speech, and the precision, planning and implementation of the long march was reminiscent of the American raid on Osama Bin Laden. No political party in Pakistan has organised such a smooth and successful protest before, he added.
Hassan admitted that the West would have reason to be pleased with Qadri’s operation, as Pakistan has only ever been famous for exporting terrorism and extremists. However American support in the matter will be evident once Qadri discusses his views on Pakistan’s economic and foreign policy matters. Answering a question regarding the recent developments on the line of control, Hassan said, that might just be a coincidence even though we may not be able to completely erase speculations. He said, “I’ve read enough American history to conclude that the US would never shirk from grasping an opportunity that would help better its image in a country it has lost sympathy and support in, that said, nothing conclusive can be said about American involvement in this case.” In response to a question regarding America’s policy shift towards supporting Salafi Islam, he said that he had not seen evidence in this regard. “Why would the US have an issue with an interpretation of Islam that did not oppose it?” he added. “I do not support Qadri, but I share his observations and I would like to meet with him to discuss his stance on social, economic and cultural issues,” Hassan concluded.
Please do not mix up religion with politics.
I humbly request to the innocent people of Pakistan just to forget the controversy of who Qadri is, but to contemplate the points raised by him. Our country has even crossed the verge of devastation. No writ of Govt, incompetence and insincerity, corruption
Religion in our country is treated like a ball on the devil’s playground. Somebody is using it not to pay taxes, somebody is exploiting it to kill others , somebody is mending ways in it for the sake of making good relations and our politicians are using the religion for their own political needs. May Allah have mercy on the name of the Religion. When we will equate performance instead of religion to judge someone then we can only progress. Merit Based societies always excel and biased societies who judge people based on religion, race or creed always see their demise after a certain time.
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