LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Tahirul Qadri may cut his two-month long foreign tour short and return to the country to lead his party in the campaign for forcing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign.

He had left the country on July 1 for Egypt, UK and Norway visits. But on Thursday, he asked the PAT core committee to decide the date of his return to the country, saying he would be back on a 24-hour notice.

On Thursday, addressing the members of the core committee, Mr Qadri asked the prime minister to quit because “his crime now stands proven” after the JIT report.

He said Nawaz’s stay in power would only further destabilise the country and the system.

“Some 23 workers of the PAT embraced martyrdom in an effort to get rid of this corrupt system. As many as 2,000 others faced cases and 25,000 faced illegal incarceration at different points. All these sacrifices were aimed at ending corruption in the country. Dozens of cases of financial corruption were registered against the rules, but none of them succeeded because they were in power. Even the Joint Investigation Team had complaints of non-cooperation by the official agencies. Despite all the difficulties, the JIT had done a professional job and the corrupt now cannot escape accountability. These efforts would soon clean the country,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2017