Tahirul Qadri calls time on politics

LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri has announced his retirement from politics and the chairmanship of the party after taking credit for kick-starting the accountability drive in Pakistan.

“I am taking retirement from PAT chairmanship and politics,” Qadri said in a video message on Saturday. “It was due to our struggle that the accountability process began and the corrupt mafia has now been held accountable.”

He added: “We tried to stop unethical means from coming into the assembly and put all our energies to stop these ways. Unfortunately in our politics there is no room for the poor and the middle class people.”

“My political struggle is only 10 per cent of my overall work which I have been doing alongside it,” Qadri said. “We have focused on eradicating illiteracy from Pakistan and formed 5,000 educational institutions around Pakistan.”

He added: “It was through the platforms of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek that we introduced Article 62 and 63 to the common people of Pakistan and made them aware of their fundamental rights.”

He also spoke of the Model Town incident. “The martyrs of the Model Town incident are the result of the struggle of the movement,” he said. “We protested for three months in Islamabad to create awareness in the people,” he asserted.

Qadri said as a result of his movement, those who could at one time never be arrested are in prison now. “Now it is a test for the new people, (and) how they will continue the process of accountability,” he added.

He now wants to focus on his academic commitments and writing. “I have health issues as well, which is why I am retiring from politics and handing over all the power to the Supreme Council,” Qadri said. He then said the present situation was a test for the “new people” who had been claiming of bringing change in the country. “Where is the change?” he asked.

He said while he was retiring from Pakistani politics, political activities and from his post as PAT chairman, his legal battle for the Model Town incident would continue “till my last breath” as “this is not a matter of politics but of faith”.