Pakistani cleric claims government 'hijack' after flight diverted from capital

The much-anticipated return to Pakistan of a cleric who has promised to launch a revolution in the country descended into a bizarre standoff on Monday that left passengers trapped for hours inside a commercial aircraft.

Tahir-ul-Qadri, the Canada-based leader of a moderate Islamic party in Pakistan, refused to disembark from the Emirates airliner after the government forced the plane to divert from Islamabad to Lahore, 150 miles to the south-east of the capital.

The cleric, whose army of supporters brought Islamabad to a standstill last year, remained on board issuing demands by phone from his business-class seat for the army to come and rescue him.

Qadri claims his life is in danger following the killing of eight activists from his Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) party last week by police in Lahore. That incident, triggered by police attempts to clear security barriers from around his office complex, increased the importance of a man who had otherwise been regarded by most observers as posing little threat to the government.

Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, was forced to sack the provincial law chief over the incident and promised a full investigation. The ruling faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) led by the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, appears alarmed by Qadri's potential to cause trouble at a time when tensions with the country's army are running high and the opposition politician Imran Khan is challenging the government's mandate.

Prior to his scheduled arrival, roads from the airport were blocked off with shipping containers, and mobile phone services were suspended in places. The flight from Dubai circled Islamabad for more than an hour while Qadri's supporters clashed with police outside the airport.

After the army failed to respond to Qadri's demands for senior officers to come and meet him at Lahore airport, the situation was eventually defused by Mohammad Sarwar, a former Glasgow Labour MP who now serves as governor of Punjab, who boarded the plane to talk directly with Qadri. The cleric agreed to accompany Sarwar in an armoured vehicle to the Lahore hospital where his injured party workers were being treated.

"I fear Shahbaz Sharif's terrorists will try to attack me and I want the governor to embrace martyrdom with me," Qadri told local television. He described the diversion of the plane as a "hijacking" by the government.

Qadri, 63, runs not only the PAT, which has never won significant numbers of seats in parliament, but also the Minhaj-ul-Qur'an (MQI), an international charitable foundation rooted in Barelvism, an Islamic sect generally thought to be relatively liberal.

Many commentators are puzzled by what he hopes to achieve, believing he has little chance of achieving his stated desire of sparking an Arab spring-style revolution in a country that went to the polls less than a year ago.

In January last year, months before general elections, he marched on Islamabad with tens of thousands of his supporters to demand fundamental reforms to an electoral system he claimed was rotten. Despite camping out for days on the capital's main avenue in a specially constructed bomb-proof metal box, none of his demands were met, although the government agreed to a sign a list of promises that helped him save face.

Qadri's rhetoric echoes recent claims by Imran Khan, the former cricketer turned populist politician, that last year's election was rigged in favour of the PML-N.

Source: www.theguardian.com