LAHORE - Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) will resist any government move to deport its chief Dr Tahirl Qadri from the airport on his arrival in Islamabad on June 23.
PAT General Secretary Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, while talking to this reporter, said there would be no difference between a political government and martial law if the Nawaz Sharif regime decided to deport Qadri. He said there was no law in the country, adding, practically, there existed law of Nawaz Sharif only. He said martial law would be better than ‘Nawaz Sharif law.’ “We will resist the move an attempt is made to deport Dr Tahirul Qadri. We will tell the government that it is not easy to do so as we are not weak or helpless people,” said Gandapur.
Dr Tahirul Qadri who is residing in Canada has sannounced to land in the homeland on June 23 to lead a move to change what he says a corrupt system prevailing in the country and to bring about a ‘green revolution’.
While speaking on the ‘threats to democracy’ Thursday during the debate on budget in the National Assembly, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai urged the government to deport PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri from the airport on his arrival as he might become a threat to democracy.
Endorsing Achakzai’s suggestion, PPP lawmaker Shagufta Jumani also opined that the PAT chief should be deported as soon as he landed in Islamabad from Canada. It is, however, not clear whether the government is thinking on these lines or not.
Commenting on the legal aspect of the suggestion, senior lawyer Barrister Salman Akram Raja told The Nation that there was no legal justification of deporting a Pakistani citizen. He was, however, of the view that the government would not deport Dr Tahirul Qadri.