Tahir-ul-Qadri’s 10 points revolutionary manifesto And Taboo Breaking

“Rotti, Kaprra, aur Makan” (Food, clothing, and shelter) otherwise prosperity was the slogan of PPPP but in each tenure of PPPP’s federal government, general public of Pakistan become even more poor. The same was the case with PML-N that promised 180 degree change of fate and indeed the fate was changed; Nawaz Shareef became one of the top richest men of Pakistan and had own industrial unites in abroad whereas Pakistanis kept dying due to poverty, unemployment, terrorism, energy crisis, price hike etc.

 

1. Every homeless will be given a home. Every homeless family will be given 3/5 Marla residential plot for free. They would be given interest-free loans for the construction of these houses which would be returnable from 20 to 25 years. Those families, who do not have financial means to return these loans, would be handed over keys of constructed houses.
2. Every person would be given employment or employment allowance. The youth would be helped in career counseling and planning for their jobs. The practice of making them beggars, indebted or loan defaulters would be discouraged and discontinued.
3. Those having monthly income of less than Rs. 15,000/20,000 would pay half of the real amount on flour, rice, milk, cooking oil, sugar, and plain clothes.
4. All taxes will be eliminated from the gas, water and electricity bills for lower middle class and they would be required to pay half of the exact amount of these utilities.
5. Official insurance scheme would be introduced and the poor would get free medical treatment.
6. Education up to matriculation will be free and the parents would not be able to keep their children deprived of education. The students desirous of higher education would be given opportunities to do so and their admission will be ensured as per merit.
7. Pakistan’s total area is 200 million acres. Out of which 100 million acre is cultivable. The half of this land is under private ownership while the remaining 50 million acres would be distributed among the poor.
8. Sectarianism, terrorism and extremism will be eliminated. Ten thousand peace training centres will be opened for training of the people. Syllabi of religious seminaries would be revised and amended.
9. The women will be given opportunities for respectable employment in the form of domestic industrial units. They will be given complete socio-economic security by doing away with discriminatory laws.
10. Disparity in the pay structures of all senior and junior public and private sector employees will be minimized to possible extent [1].

 

Tahir Qadri, lifetime chairman of Minhaj-ul-Quran, introduced his 10 point agenda whilst declaring that he wanted to change the entire system through another framework of him, for example establishment of 35 provinces—150 district governments—800 Tehsil governments—6000 Union Council governments—village council governments. Undoubtedly, Pakistan can be better administrated if new provinces are created on administrative basis, thus, resources of state will be distributed equally whilst directly benefiting common Pakistani. But his ten point agenda appears to be an unpractical romantic claim that cann’t be fulfilled in Pakistan even after 50 years for certain reasons, for example

 

1. To entertain the 10 point agenda (except from point 7 & 8), Pakistan needed combination of agricultural and industrial ultimate revolution that would boost the economy to such level where financial challenges to meet this agenda would not only be met but would also generate much revenue to support overall economy.
2. In how much time Tahir Qadri will fulfill his 10 point agenda and will it also be required that to fulfill Qadri’s 10 point agenda he has to be declared lifetime head of the state of Pakistan as he is lifetime chairman of Minhaj-ul-Quran?
3. How many homeless Pakistanis were there till 5 June 2014 who will be given either house or residential plot of 3/5 marla size for free—-interest free loan for 25 years? If number of homeless Pakistanis was 2,000,000 (minimum) amongst over 180,000,000 heads and a house cost was about 500,000 (minimum), then PRK 1,000,000,000,000 would be required to fulfill this promise.
4. Minimum estimated unemployed Pakistanis were 2,000,000. Now what employment opportunity Qadri’s government will provide to them and how or how much unemployment allowance will be given to such people? If Qadri’s government gave minimum PKR 4,000 unemployment allowance a month to minimum 500,000 individuals, then PKR 2,000,000,000 would be required a month and 24,000,000,000 a year to continue this programme.
5. To Qadri’s government an ideal salary should have been 30,000 to 40,000 PKR (hope Tahir Qadri is talking about 2014 salary package) that is why commodities like rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, plain clothing, milk etc will be provided on half prices to those who had PKR 15 to 20 thousand salary packages. Now first of all such people had to get theirselves registered and if 200,000 (minimum) individuals were registered and each of them required at least 1,000 PKR subsidy, then Qadri’s government has to arrange 200,000,000 a month and 2,400,000,000 a year.
6. All lower middle class will also be required to get registered as Qadri’s government will cut all the taxes on gas, electricity, and water bills for lower middle class that will also pay half price of the said commodities. Now a country where about 23 % population lived below poverty line and some 21 % had earned 1.25 USD a day, how many people out of over 180,000,000 will get registered as member of lower middle class but if some 2,500,000 heads were registered and were given PKR 100 subsidy a month, then it will cost Qadri’s government 250,000,000 PKR a month and 3,000,000,000 a year.
7. Free healthcare is there to some extent, in addition, life saving drugs and hospitalization is quite expensive in Pakistan. Now will Qadri’s government provide all medicines and other healthcare facilities to over 90,000,000 without any cost when about 50% of Pakistani population could easily be called poor that hadn’t sufficient funds to manage their food, shelter, education, healthcare etc?
8. Until there is terrorism, country’s economy cannot be rejuvenated in anyway. Moreover, it is widely believed that terrorism in Pakistan is foreign supported, now how Tahir Qadri as a head of Pakistan will tackle rather bash those foreign elements that transported terrorism in Pakistan, it is the biggest question.
9. How Tahir Qadri will change the syllabus of religious seminaries when he was afraid of Islamic extremists in first place which even propelled him to apply for a Canadian nationality since he saw his life in danger for issuing a Fitwa against terrorism?
10. Elimination of disparity between salaries is another unpractical thing until Pakistan is ruled through communism rule i.e. the more you work, the more you are paid.

 

None can have objection over Tahir Qadri’s 10 point agenda but its practicality, Qadri’s reputation as side changer, Qadri’s utmost desire to become head of Pakistan, and required time frame in accomplishing the agenda etc were the main questions otherwise Pakistanis should have enjoyed more benefits that a citizen of Switzerland or Sweden enjoys.

Moving ahead, Minhaj-ul-Quran was a NGO but Tahir Qadri used it as his political platform, now how absurd it would have been appeared when Mother Teresa had used her platform as a political force or Abdul Sattar Edhhi had used Edhhi Foundation to become prime minister of Pakistan. This was the reason that to many, Qadri was a professional Muslim who used Islam for his own sake; an idiosyncrasy that is innate in Pakistani clerics. Moreover, as climate changes very often, Tahir has been changing his sides time to time frequently that gave an indication of his opportunism and personal profitism. Thus, if the past record of the cleric is studied under the light of Islam, which he used for his own sake apparently, then Tahir Qadri will appear as a bad Muslim since he was caught lying over blasphemy law of Pakistan and Quran certainly disliked liars. Wasn’t it so that Muslims loathed such things that were loathed by Quran? Moreover, His 10 point agenda would have appeared practical if he had included some practical points in it e.g. construction of KBD—trial of Iftikhar Chaudry, Nawaz Shareef, Z.A. Bhutto etc under article 6—dragging such foreign entities in the UN for being allegedly involved in sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan—immediate but brutal accountability without any partiality. If Tahir Qadri was a real brave revolutionist, then he could prove hisself a true revolutionist by breaking various taboos for example, equalization of Pakistan’s citizens through the removal of anti-Ahmadi laws whilst declaring Ahmadis as Muslims. And if Tahir Qadri proves hisself a real revolutionist and fearless leader whilst nullifying his reputation as an opportunist and emotional blackmailer, then he will be able to break another taboo where many people believed that Tahir Qadri was either an atheist or a non-Muslim as no Muslim will ever use Islam as Tahir Qadri did.

 

Writer:  Shahid Mehmood Khan

Footnotes:
1: http://www.minhaj.org

 

Note: Al-Rasub is not responsible for writer personal opinion.

Tags: article, opinion, Pakistan, Politics, Tahir-ul-Qadri

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