PAT chief says Constitution is no longer in place, terms parliamentarians’ sentiments for people as ‘fake’
Says govt, not protesters, responsible for making arrangements to prevent disasters such as floods
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri said Wednesday that the Constitution is no longer in force and his party has come to Islamabad to “revive” it.
Terming the parliamentarians’ sentiments for people as “fake”, the PAT chief said, “We are being taught that a revolution can only take place through votes, Constitution and Parliament but the truth is that the Constitution is no more in force and the Parliament has not delivered to the people of the country.”
“Had the Constitution been in effect, people would not have arrived in Islamabad to get their rights,” said Qadri while addressing PAT supporters staging a sit-in in Islamabad’s Red Zone.
He added that the present rulers had not come through the votes but had “robbed the mandate of the people in order to legitimise their tyranny”.
The PAT chief said his party wants a system based on equality and justice.
Qadri said that parliamentarians are lying about the interior of his container and asked those leveling allegations to enquire about the reality of his container’s interior from the team of negotiators who visited him in the container.
Quoting a former State Bank governor, Qadri said that nearly Rs 250 billion is laundered out of Pakistan daily.
“Rulers and influential lords are laundering the country’s money abroad,” he alleged, adding that the state’s economy is on the brink of devastation as “Rs 8 billion are lost to corruption every day”.
He alleged that the incumbent government has acquired Rs 10,000 billion loans while Rs 75 billion is being smuggled out of the country from merely three airports.
Alleging that seventy percent parliamentarians are tax-evaders, Qadri questioned, “How can the nation’s reserves be increased when corruption is so rampant? How can the poor get food, clothing and accommodation?”
Speaking about the recent floods, the PAT chief said that the floods have caused havoc due to the government’s poor performance as no precautionary measures were taken.
Referring to government high-ups statements that the protestors should end the sit-in and help the flood victims, Qadri said it is the government’s responsibility and not that of participants of the sit-ins to make arrangements to prevent losses.
