Allama Qadri's March: Thumbs-up and Thumbs-down Together

Allama Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Long March and sit-in was speculative in its grandeur, enthusiasm and bravery. I salute its participants for braving out four nights and four days on the road in front of the parliament in the bitter cold of January in Islamabad, which is the coldest month from round the year. It even rained on the fourth day, although nobody knew at that time that it would be the last day of the sit-in, and the enthusiastic participants listened to their leader’s speech amidst the pelting rain. The crowd did not comprise of Minhaj-ul-Quran members and followers only. It also comprised of common citizens who are sick to the head of the soaring inflation of food prices and basic commodities of life, no electricity, no gas, no water, no jobs, no healthcare and on top of that, flamboyant corruption and flashy lifestyles of the leaders. It is as if they are smirking at the smeared janta. Many people categorically said that we do not care what school-of-thought Allama Qadri belongs to and what his past was, we are here to demand CHANGE because we are sick to the guts of the corrupt system. Believe it or not, all the maids and helpers from our household went too. Does this mean that the common citizens have the ability to come out and protest provided they feel for the cause? Does that mean that that we do not truly feel for Aafia Siddiqui? For Missing Persons? For Drone Attacks? For Kerry-Lugar Bill? For Raymond Davis case? For Kashmir Issue? For Palestine Issue? For the information of the readers, Ms. Amina Masood, chairperson of Defence of Human Rights (www.dhrpk.org), the aggrieved families of Missing Persons and their supporters have also put up a sit-in at D-chowk many times amidst cold weather, wind-storms that blew away their tents and bitter-cold nights of November and February. Three days, seven days, thirteen days, sixty days, seventy-five days…and the administration waited ‘patiently’ for them to exhaust their energies and money and go back home unaccomplished, downtrodden and brokenhearted. Neither did the media cover them much like they covered Dr. Qadri. Of course, like everything else, reporting calamity has its fees too. But do you know the number of common citizens who participate in these sit-ins? One, two, five, twenty, at best, fifty…compare this to the hundred thousand plus present at the Allama Qadri’s sit-in… This shows our face as a nation. We will step out and speak up if somebody steps on our tail, but if it is somebody else’s tail in trouble, ‘what can I do’?