Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri late on Thursday announced an end to four days of anti-government protests by thousands of people after striking a deal with the government.
Qadri,the Anna Hazare of Pakistan signed a deal with the Government of Pakistan.
Canadian Born agreed to the deal amidst chaos after the arrest warrant against him and the dwindling mass support with a leading opposition party refusing to back him up.
He has now indicated his plans to contested the Elections.
What is the Deal?
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The government agreed with the cleric to dissolve the National Assembly before its term ends in mid-March, giving 90 days until elections are held, according to the “Islamabad Long March Declaration”.
That would give time to make sure politicians are eligible to stand for elections.
The government also agreed that the caretaker administration, which normally precedes elections, would be chosen in consultation with all parties.
A declaration laying out the agreement between the government and Qadri was signed by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf as well as the high-level government officials who made up the negotiating team.
The government delegation was comprised of Afrasiab Khattak, Farooq H. Naek, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Chaudhry Shujaat, Babar Ghauri, Khurshid Shah, Amin Faheem, Farooq Sattar, Senator Abbas Afridi and Mushahid Hussain.
They also agreed that the treasury benches in complete consensus with Qadri’s party will propose the names of two honest and impartial people for the appointment of caretaker prime minister.
On the issue of composition of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the agreement said that it will be discussed at a meeting on Jan 27 at the Minhaj-ul-Quran Secretariat in Lahore.
It was agreed upon that the focus will be on the enforcement of electoral reforms prior to the polls on article 62, 63 and 218 (3) of the constitution, section 77 to 82 of the representation of people’s act 1976 and other relevant provisions relating to conducting free and fair elections.
The Supreme Court’s judgement of June 8, 2012 on constitutional petition of 2011 must be implemented in true letter and spirit also.
Moreover, they also agreed that with the end of the long march and sit-in, all cases registered against each other shall be withdrawn immediately and there will be no acts of victimisation and vendetta against either party or the participants of the march.”(Dawn)
“However, Mr Qadri’s demand that the army be consulted on the structure of the interim administration was rejected.
His march from Lahore to Islamabad culminated in a mass rally on Monday evening.
Clashes briefly erupted on Tuesday but the mass protest has been largely peaceful.
The cleric has said he wanted the military and judiciary to be involved in installing a caretaker government to oversee the forthcoming elections.
But he suffered a setback on Wednesday when the leader of the main opposition, the Pakistan Muslim League, refused to back his protests.
There has been speculation that Mr Qadri may be fishing for a role for the military and the judiciary when it comes to the appointment of a caretaker government to oversee over the forthcoming elections.
(BBC)
That’s it.
Papers pushed, Pakistan is now a full-fledged Democracy!
http://dawn.com/2013/01/17/talks-between-govt-qadri-concluded-successfully/
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