Tehrik Minhaj-ul-Quran (TMQ) Chief Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri has warned the federal government against creating hurdles to long march, saying he would have no control over people if they were stopped from gathering in Islamabad. 

Talking to media people on Sunday, he alleged the Punjab government was harassing his workers in various districts. “Police and administration are harassing my workers and stopping transporters from giving buses to sabotage the march to Islamabad,” he alleged. Tahir-ul-Qadri said if the Punjab government continued to harass the Minhaj workers, half of the marchers could head towards Lahore.

“Although our long march will be 100 per cent peaceful, I cannot give any assurance about those marching toward Lahore in case the government tries to stop them and the Punjab government will be responsible for such situation,” he added.“I am well aware how politicians hijack mandates in elections. Merely changing parties will not work, so TMQ wants to change the corrupt system,” he said and added influential candidates bought votes of biradris in bulk, depriving the masses of their due rights.

He said that leaders gave tickets to their relatives while the role of workers was to dance on drum beat. He said he had no enmity with any political party. He observed giving development funds worth millions of rupees to parliamentarians was unconstitutional. He said the decision would be taken in Islamabad on January 14 on the future of the country. Mentioning the slogan of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he asked the party workers whether they had got access to roti, kapra aur makan.

He said the rulers who had failed to control terrorism in the country were now trying to stop his long march on the pretext of expected bomb blasts during the march. “So I also request the federal government not do such things to stop our peaceful protest,” he said. Qadri said he had heard that Interior Minister Rehman Malik was coming to the TMQ office and added he had not shut the doors of negotiations and anybody could come and talk to him.