Lahore - All arrangements have been completed for the all party conference being hosted by the Pakistan Awami Tehrik at its Model Town Secretariat here on Sunday (today). The APC would discuss the June 17 tragedy in which more than a dozen PAT workers were killed and 90 others injured.
Though PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri said he has no plan to set up an alliance, the holding of the APC is a move to bring all the anti-government parties closer. The parties to be represented at the APC, at a later stage, may agree to pool resources to dislodge the government. However, according to the PAT, the APC is being held on a single point agenda to discuss the Model Town tragedy.
The PAT extended invitation to the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Awami Muslim League, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami besides its allies including PML-Q, Sunni Ittehad Council and Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen.
According to information available till the filing of this report, all above mentioned parties, except the JUI-F and JUI-S, have accepted the invitation and assured their participation.
Talking to this scribe, PAT president Dr Raheeq Abbasi, who is also coordinator of APC, said that they had invited all political parties telephonically as well as sent them invitation through courier and fax.
JUI-S information secretary Maulana Asim Makhdoom said that a party meeting chaired by Maulana Samiul Haq had decided not to attend the APC as its agenda was ambiguous. He, however, said that his party strongly condemned the Model Town tragedy.
JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai said that they did not receive any invitation for the APC. He said if they were invited, they would have discussed it. He, however, said they openly condemned the Model Town incident and expressed their solidarity with the PAT. He also said they appreciated the efforts of the government for probing the incident. He said the incident should not be used for political gains.
According to TV reports, PML-N leader Rana Muhammad Afzal said that if they had been invited by the PAT to participate in the APC, they would have attended it.
Talking to media at the residence of Dr Tahirul Qadri, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said that all political parties except the PML-N had been invited to participate in the APC. He said days of the rulers were numbered and the blood of Model Town tragedy would not go waste. He said all parties expressed their condemnation on the tragedy and assured their participation.
The PML-Q delegation comprised of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and Raja Basharat visited the PAT headquarters and met Dr Tahirul Qadri. They also briefed Dr Qadri about the contacts with various parties for participation in the APC.
The government has set up a judicial commission to probe the June 17 incident. However, the PAT has boycotted the proceedings of the commission, and demanded to setup a judicial commission comprising of three judges of the Supreme Court. The PAT has also given an application in Faisal Town Police Station for registering an FIR against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Law Minister Rana Sana and other PML-N leaders. The police station received the complaint but did not register the FIR so far.