ISLAMABAD  - With his protest sit-in entered in the sixth day on Thursday in the federal capital, Dr Tahirul Qadri’s goals are unclear as yet, however, it is quite evident that his followers are getting exhausted physically and financially.
Interviews with many of his loyalists reveal that most of the people among his followers are out of money now and getting exhausted physically. Though they are not uttering any words against their leader, yet they are looking pessimistic with the passage of time.
When asked by this scribe to a worker of Pakistan Awami Tehreek that whether or not they were paid some money from the organisation to meet their daily expenses, he said, no.
The worker said, "Many people are now with empty pockets and they are calling their homes to send them money". The follower however did not accuse his leader of all the happening with the workers.
The same worker whereas confessed that there were lot of poor people in the crowd and they could not arrange money. He claimed that the people who could afford were helping the poor among them. At the same time, there was a woman who had come with Dr Qadri's march carrying her daughters. The poor woman was out of money. She had no money to buy even the tickets to go back to her home. The lady talked to the management of Awami Tehreek to give her some money and was responded with an answer, "You will be provided money in Lahore after the March ends".
Interestingly, there is another trouble that Qadri’s followers did not knew about when they were ordered by their leader to start marching towards Parliament of Pakistan from their earlier stop at Aabpara Chowk Islamabad. Qadri's loyalists never knew in their life that bathroom facility and shelter was much important for a human being as they knew it now on their second day settled in front of parliament. In the Aabpara Chowk they had lot of facilities including food outlets, nearby mosques where they could go to washrooms and an adjacent residential area where they had found some residents who were facilitating them to some extent.
When their leader pushed them towards his favorite building of parliament, they got cut off from all facilities. They could not enter the nearby buildings for their natural needs neither there was a nearby restaurant.
The government in front of the parliament did not make any washrooms and finally the Pakistan Awami Tehreek on Thursday had to spend money to place temporary washrooms particularly needed for the ladies in the crowd.
About the financial condition of the crowd, different food sellers gave their input that their sales were now decreasing and they were feeling that the crowd was out of money now. The food provided by the Awami Tehreek is in bulk quantity but still does not cater the needs of whole the crowd. Dr Qadri whereas seems not turning flexible despite all this and is committed to test his followers for as long as possible, at least unless and until he gets something out of his show.
Interestingly, Dr Qadri who earlier wanted to go to parliament, on Thursday found complaining about the containers those were creating troubles in the free movement of his followers outside the red zone. In his speech he said, "The government has set a worst example of unconstitutional and undemocratic behavior by placing containers everywhere in the capital".
He also accused the government of issuing a notification to the private service providers asking them not to provide tents to the marchers. He also said that the government was arresting those who were doing so. The ground realities however revealed that tents were being installed by some private service providers and it seemed that Dr Qadri was planning to permanently shift himself in front of parliament in a situation when almost all the lawmakers had passed a resolution against PAT and PTI’s demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Qadri has arranged 'Qawals' to amuse his gathering and to make them sustain. In his speech he told his followers that revolution doesn't come in few days and they should not get tired or lose hope in this regard.
No update was received till the filing of this report. Qadri on Wednesday had presented his demands in front of the government committee that was assigned the task to negotiate with him the modalities for leaving the federal capital. The committee is busy as yet discussing the options with Qadri.