The PM should have addressed press briefing after ordering hangings: Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri

• Handing a nation burning in fire of terrorism over to a committee is shameful.
• What to speak of policy formulation, the cowardly leadership didn’t sufficiently & strongly condemn terrorists.
• Resolution adopted in the meeting shows that government does not have any plan or vision to defeat terrorism.
• The Prime Minister who delayed the launch of military operation for nine months and political parties that supported dialogue in the past should apologize to the nation.

PAT chief Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that the resolution adopted in the meeting of parliamentary parties in Peshawar has shown that the government does not have the plan or vision to defeat terrorism. He said that the leadership that attended the multi-party meeting is responsible for supporting dialogue, delaying the launch of the military operation for nine months and thousands of martyrdoms of innocent people. He said that what to speak of working out holistic anti-terror policy, no leader felt obliged to strongly condemn terrorists. He said that he had stated yesterday that the government would not invite PAT to the all-parties meeting due to its clear and no-nonsense stance against terrorism. He said that the political parties have played a joke with the nation in the name of consultations. He said that we would have called spade a spade, which could not have been of their liking.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri expressed these views while talking to central media cell from Houston (USA) yesterday. He said that had the Prime Minister addressed press conference after hanging terrorists and put a balm on the wounds of distraught parents, the nation would have felt great happiness, adding that cowardly leadership has rubbed salt in the wounds of the nation. He said that the power hungry rulers do not have the courage to pay the enemies of humanity in the same coin. He said that he had made it clear in 2008 that distinction between good and bad Taliban would have to be ended and war against terrorism should be considered as our own war. He said that the so-called present political leadership has wasted six years in reaching this conclusion. He said that had the government had a plan, they would not have handed the nation burning in fire of terrorism over to a committee, asking whether any committee ever found a solution to any problem.

Dr Qadri said that the so-called leaderships of the allied parties have immensely disappointed the nation. He said that had his health allowed, he would have been among the injured children in Peshawar. He expressed his deep sense of grief and sorrow on deaths of three more persons who succumbed to their injuries in hospital and said that their blood would not go in vain. He said that the meeting of parliamentary parties should have declared a war on those who support terrorists morally, politically and economically. He said that now the nation would have to gird up its loin against supporters of terrorists sitting inside and outside the parliament. He said that he was saddened to know that the budget of institutions busy in fighting terrorism after launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb was cut down. He said how terrorism can end from the country when the budget of the Prime Minister’s House is seven times more than the budget allocated for elimination of terrorism.

The PAT chief said that the longest running joint session of Parliament was held in the month of August. He said that had the issue of terrorism been taken up in the debates and discussed threadbare, we would have been saved from the agony of having the dead bodies of our children. He said that committees are being set up despite the country being in the war on terrorism for last ten years where over 50,000 people have already lost their precious lives, adding what else can be more shameful behavior than this. He said that corrupt and incompetent rulers have rendered the foundations of Pakistan hollow. He said that had their own children fallen a prey to terrorism, there would have been no smiles on their faces. He asked those who ended moratorium on death penalty whether they were waiting for children to die in suicide attacks before they could remove the moratorium. He said that the masses want to know as to who put a ban on the executions and what benefits did it bring.

The PAT leader directed all PAT and MQI chapters to do Quran Khawani for the souls of those martyred in Peshawar. Minhaj University, Girls College and schools under Minhaj-ul-Quran remained shut down yesterday to mourn the massacre of innocent children. Quran Khawani was held in the central Minhaj-ul-Quran Mosque and candles were lit in memory of the martyrs under the banner of PAT Women Wing at Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala. The participants of candle vigils expressed their solidarity with the bereaved families.