Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has directed the workers of Minhaj-ul-Quran
International and Pakistan Awami Tehreek to launch mass contact campaign to bring
about change in the system and make ten million people members of MQI. He said that
the present system, which has been geared to protect the interests of the 3% of
the elite to the detriment of 97% people, is exploitative, anti-democratic and anti-people.
The workers, he said in the same context, need to step in the arena to create awareness
among the masses against the cruel system.
Regretting that Pakistan’s political system is monopolized by a handful of families,
he said that people are caught up in a vicious dynastic cycle. The current electoral
system, he added, does not give any space to competent, honest and educated people
and it must, therefore, be said good-bye. He said that the workers would have to
work very hard to put these facts before the people. The present system gives space
to the dishonest leadership leading them to say that they have got together to protect
the system, which means protecting their vested interests. He categorically stated
that the system for which political leaders across party divide have vowed to save
is the enemy of people and the country. The nation should get united against this
corrupt and exploitative system to regain their voice as an agent of real change.
Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that the workers of PAT and MQI would go to the
door-steps of people to make them realize the gravity of situation and achieve
the target of making ten million people members of this grand campaign. Educating
people about the current state of affairs is the first responsibility of the workers.
Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri expressed these views while delivering
a speech from Canada to the thousands of workers and office bearers of MQI and PAT
at a prestigious Workers’ Convention at Jamia al-Minhaj the other day. Dr Raheeq
Ahmad Abbasi, Secretary General of MQI, Sheikh Zahid Fayyaz, G.M. Malik, Ahmad Nawaz
Anjum, and other central leaders were also present on the occasion.
Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that dubbing the present pro-elite arrangement
as democratic system is the humiliation of democracy and violation of representative
rule. Both so-called religious parties and secular political forces are part of
the system and hence on the same page to keep the political status quo intact for
their parochial benefit. He clearly stated that MQI and PAT stood for elimination
of system which the elite has established to protect their interests and not the
Constitution and state structure.
He regretted that religious and political parties have said a final adieu to
the culture of manifesto. Today abusing each other on TV has become another manifesto
in the country. He said that political parties talk of public issues and manifesto
throughout the world to seek people’s mandate but in Pakistan, the entire focus
remains on the winning horses, which is the major impediment in the way of emergence
of popular leadership. With people’s struggle against the corrupt system, Pakistan
would get out of its current woes and be on the path of progress and prosperity.
Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that the nation has been divided into various
sectarian, ethnic and linguistic divisions under the policy of ‘divide and rule’
so that the elite could have its firm grip on power. He stated the slogans invoking
democracy and religion are raised to fetch votes only. The country’s institutions
are being destroyed one after the other as is reflected from the dissolution of
the Higher Education Commission (HEC). He asked the people to stand up against the
government’s decision to disband the HEC as it was a matter of collective interest.
Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri instructed the workers to educate people about the ill-effects
of the political system currently in vogue in the country, which has made it impossible
for people to determine their own future. He said that the Parliament has failed
to rise up to the expectations of people and resolve their problems. “It is nothing
more than a debating forum. It is people’s chief responsibility to bring about change
in the system. The workers of PAT and MQI are working tirelessly for the promotion
of peace, interfaith dialogue and harmony in the world,” he concluded.
