LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge sought comments from the Faisal Town SHO by January 22 on a petition filed by a woman seeking registration of an FIR against Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri among others for not paying her Rs3,500 for each day she attended the Inqilab March.
The court had sought comments from the SHO at the last hearing but no one appeared on his behalf nor submitted comments on the matter. The PAT had claimed that the woman was not a member of the PAT but had been planted by the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz to tarnish PAT’s reputation. The woman, however, has attached her PAT lifetime membership certificate, bearing Qadri’s signature, to the application.
Hajan Momina said she had approached the SHO to file a complaint against Qadri, his son, daughter and PAT central president Raheeq Abbasi on January 6. The SHO refused to register a case.
Momina said that she had been a PAT member since 2007. On August 7, Qadri’s son and daughter requested her to gather women from her area to attend the Martyrs’ Day at Model Town.
She said she took several women from her area to attend the event but there the PAT chief, his son and daughter asked them to participate in the Inqilab March in Islamabad and promised to pay her and the women accompanying her Rs3,500 for each day they were there.
She said PAT officials took the identity cards of the women accompanying her and promised to compensate them for their participation. Momina said she and the other women stayed at the capital for 70 days but no one from the PAT paid them a dime for their participation even though they had to brave police violence.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2015.