A 5-member delegation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) called on PAT chief Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri at his residence in Model Town Lahore on August 01. The delegation, which was led by MQM central leader Haider Abbas Rizvi, consisted of the Coordination Committee’s members Abdul Haseeb, Muhammad Aamir Baloch, Iqbal Qureshi and Rana Ashraf Advocate. PAT President Dr Raheeq Abbasi, Raja Zahid Mahmood, Qazi Faiz, Mansoor-ul-Qadri, Iftikhar Shah Bokhari, and Sohail Ahmad Raza were also present on the occasion.

Expressing their grief and sorrow on the Model Town tragedy, the members of the delegation said that no example of such brutality and savagery at the hands of police was to be found in Pakistan’s history. They said that they had come to express their solidarity with PAT on the killing of its workers. The MQM delegates exchanged views with PAT leadership on the matters of mutual interest including upcoming revolution march and political situation in the country. The meeting continued for well over an hour.

Talking to media after the meeting, Haider Abbas Rizvi said that MQM fully supported Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s thought. He said that his delegation also discussed about revolution march, adding that staging peaceful demonstrations and rallies was a fundamental political right of every party and the government should not create any hurdles in it. When asked about his party’s participation in revolution march, he said that decisions were taken unanimously in his party, adding that we would surely take this matter up for consultation. Expressing his grief on the tragic incident in Karachi, he said that the responsibility of loss of over three dozen precious lives lay on the government. He said that there was no local government of a city that was larger in size than 90 countries of the world.

In reply to a question, PAT President Dr Raheeq Abbasi said that Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri would announce the date of revolution march soon. He said that discussions were underway with a number of political parties including PTI. He said that the date of revolution march would be announced soon after consultations with the leaderships of like-minded parties were concluded.