Qadri to hold ‘people’s court’ at 5pm as 48-hour deadline expires

The 48-hour deadline given by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down from office and dissolve Parliament expired at midnight, as the firebrand preacher urged his followers and the general public to reach the Inqilab March venue today (Tuesday) at 5pm for holding a “people’s court” to decide the next line of action.

In his address on the expiration of his deadline, Qadri asked his workers to prepare to sacrifice their lives as he motivated them to brace for a standoff with the “tyrannical government”.

Although the PAT chief has not stated his future line of action, his address and the metaphors used suggest that he was preparing his followers for a serious showdown with the government.

Addressing his followers earlier in the evening,  Qadri announced that countrywide sit-ins would be staged in support of ‘Inqilab’ starting from Monday evening.

“These sit-ins will be held across all four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan,” Qadri said.

“Whether Sunni or Shia, Deobandi or Barelvi, religious or secular, from any location or ethnicity…from this evening onward, all groups will stage sit-in in protest,” he said, adding that if the law and order situation deteriorates, the government would be responsible.

Qadri said that even though the government knows about threats to his life yet his personal bullet-proof SUV was locked through jammers to prevent him from addressing the ‘Inqilab’ marchers, adding that these measures would provoke the participants of the march.

“The Interior Ministry had sent me seven letters each stating life threats to me from terrorist forces,” he said.

The PAT chief claimed that the PM and interior minister would be responsible if his supporters are provoked. “This attitude of the government is undemocratic,” he lamented.

Highlighting the “utter absence of rule of law”, Qadri asked the government what it considers as democracy and constitution.

He said raids were being conducted at his workers’ houses in Karachi following the call for countrywide protests.

He said Karachi was once a peaceful city but had now had now become violent. Qadri said that at least 20,000 people were kidnapped from the constituency of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.

He criticised the Sindh government for its inefficiency in addressing the needs of the people, particularly minorities. He called on “all Sindhis and Balochis” to join the movement, outlining how their “rulers have failed them”.

He regretted that although local-bodies elections were conducted in Balochistan yet power was not transferred to the grass-root level.

“Are Baloch people not humans; don’t they need services like universities and hospitals,” he questioned, saying that there is only one medical college and one university in Balochistan.

Meanwhile, during Qadri’s speech, one of the loudspeakers placed on the stage exploded due to a short circuit, creating panic.

Qadri later told his supporters to clean the entire area where the PAT marchers have staged a sit-in, urging them to consider Islamabad as their own home.