Qazi Muhammad Zahid elected President PAT in intra-party elections

Qazi Muhammad Zahid Hussain and Khurram Nawaz Gandapur belonging to Sindh and KP provinces respectively were elected the President and Secretary General of PAT in an intra-party election. Basharat Jaspal, Fayyaz Warraich and Brig (r) Muhammad Mushtaq were elected to the positions of President of PAT Central, South and North chapters respectively; whereas Rehman Maqbool, Saifullah Saddozai, and Mahmood Ahmad Hasnain were elected General Secretary of PAT Central, South and North chapters. Chaudhry Muhammad Sharif was the runner-up for the position of the central PAT President.

PAT Electoral College elected the central and provincial office bearers through a secret balloting. The election for the provincial chapters of Sindh, KP and Balochistan will be held next week.

PAT Chairman Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri addressed the meeting of the Federal Council of PAT and congratulated the newly elected office holders of the party. The meeting also approved an amendment in the constitution of PAT.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that PAT is not the party of status quo. He said that revolution is our goal and mission; one that gives education, health, jobs, security and justice to the people and builds a society in which no powerful is able to exploit the weak. He said that PAT has waged relentless struggle against exploitative and ascendant forces for 36 long years and braved such tragedies as Model Town in the process. He said that courageous workers of PAT rendered exemplary sacrifices for Pakistan and Islam, adding that this process of sacrifices continues unabated even today. He said that PAT has struggled politically and legally for electoral reforms, and elimination of terrorism and corruption.

The Federal Council adopted four resolutions on the occasion that relate to release of the Baqir Najfi Commission report, oppression on the Rohingya Muslims of Burma, excellent Supreme Court decisions against corruption and foreign loans and skyrocketing price hike.

Presenting the resolution about Model Town tragedy, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that Federal Council has is a serious concern on the lack of dispensation of justice to the martyrs of Model Town tragedy. A resolution demanding publication of Justice Najfi Commission report was adopted on the occasion.

Noorullah Siddiqi presented another resolution that said that the decisions of the Supreme Court taken in the light of law and Constitution about the characters involved in Panama papers case constitute a significant development towards elimination of corruption. He demanded that all the cases of corruption should be adjudicated within the stipulated timeframe and the corrupt elements should be meted out an exemplary punishment.

In a resolution, Rana Muhammad Idrees strongly condemned perpetration of atrocities on the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar and demanded of the UN to initiate cases in the Court of International Justice against all state and the non-state actors for violating the human rights.

Mian Rehman Maqbool expressed his serious concern on the taking of excessive foreign loans over and above the legally mandated extent in a resolution he moved in the meeting of the Federal Council. He termed artificial hike in the prices of essential commodities as failure of the government.

The members of the Federal Council endorsed all of these draft resolutions with thumping majority. Hakeemullah Butt, Nishat Bajwa Advocate, and Mir Waiz Tareen were the runner-up for the position of president of PAT Central, South and North chapters.