System has to change to bridle corruption: Qadri

LAHORE: It is hard to understand how and why society and state institutions are tolerating corruption.This was stated by Dr Tahirul Qadri while talking to newsmen at the Lahore airport on Wednesday morning after his arrival from the United Kingdom.

The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chairman said that the whole world saw the live coverage of the Model Town incident and saw policemen firing and killing innocent and unarmed PAT workers, but to the astonishment of the whole world not a single person who fired and killed the PAT workers had been arrested yet. This can happen only in Pakistan, he added.

The PAT chief said, “Our First Information Report was registered only after the chief of the army staff intervened.  We once again request the army chief to intervene and ensure that justice is served in the Model Town tragedy.”

He said that such a democracy was worth trashing in which poor, helpless and destitute were not given their basic rights and were deprived of happiness. He said the people who were collecting wealth would rot in hell. He said why did Nawaz not phone Modi now and inquire about the situation in Srinagar, whereas they exchanged greetings on a regular basis.

He said at first, one section of the Constitution was changed to accommodate some favourites in the Election Commission but now all the sections had been changed according to the wishes of rulers. He said that without fresh legislation, new laws and election reforms, the country could not have free, fair and independent elections.

And if they are held under the prevailing laws, they will once again be called sham elections and will be full of rigging and fraud, he added.The PAT chairman said that he would announce his future line of action after a consultative meeting with the opposition parties on July 31, for which invitations had been sent and accepted by all the opposition political parties of the country.

Qadri was welcomed by thousands of workers and leaders at the airport. Those present included Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, Basharat Jaspal, Noor Ullah Sadique, Sajid Bhatti, Jawad Hamid and Raja Zahid. Flower petals were showered on the PAT chairman by the party workers who raised slogans against the government and the faulty and corrupt system.

The PAT chairman said he was saddened to hear about the martyrdom of armed forces personnel in Karachi. He said the civil authorities were utilising their efforts to fail the Zarb-e-Azb, forgetting that this operation had bought about peace and thousands of army personal had been martyred for the sake of peace. “The credit for whatever peace we have in the country goes to the armed forces of the country and their sacrifices will never go wasted.”