The Politician Flavor of the Month

It is no surprise to see Dr. Tahir ul Qadri trying to crawl back into the hearts of Pakistanis with a new fervor but carrying the same old message. And it is typical of Pakistanis to watch his antics with awe and laugh at his actions. Yes, some of us will follow him whole heartedly, and join his futile attempts at whatever he proposes. I for one pity those followers.

To me he is just another Politician. No different from others. Just the flavor of the month. He will be forgotten with the same speed at which he is now being remembered.

I am quite surprised at his audacious questions that he asks his fellow politicians. He has committed the same crimes as others. He talks about transparency but he himself has an interesting past. He cries for Pakistan but lives in Canada. Rather, he is a citizen of Canada. He talks about openness but I would like to know who pays his bills for such a massive advertising campaign which is in millions of dollars. So what is the difference between Qadri and other politician? What has he done in the past (other than emigrate out of the country when the going was tough) that merits him to be above the rest?

Dr. Tahir ul Qadri is someone whom I personally met during an interview session for a local news magazine in Lahore at Minhaj ul Quran (his academy). That was probably in early 1990s but I have followed him ever since to see what he can do for the country. So far, he has promised a lot, but delivered nothing. He has even failed to organize his party at grass roots level for all these years. If I remember correctly, he was part of the coalition against PPP called IJI that was funded and supported by political and military establishment (as revealed in recent court documents). Thus giving him a shady political background.

I have a few questions for his followers and well wishers:

• Who is paying for the massive advertising and marketing campaign run by Dr. Tahir ul Qadri. If we just count the hoardings, pamphlets distributed and newspaper advertisements, it amounts to over a few million dollars. Where did he get that much money? His supporters say, he sold his gold. But surely he could not have amassed so much gold to to pay for all this? If he DID have that much gold, where did he get it from?
• Who is running his Social Media Campaign. Most of the architects of his campaign are young looking kids with no political background or even Facebook/Twitter profiles before November, 2012. It seems most of them appeared out of the blue in the past two months to help his campaign along. Who are these ghost writers?
• I would like him to openly share his 30 year Tax records. He should be transparent to share that. Let’s see if the gold he sold (as mentioned in some of his speeches) ever mentioned in the tax records? And also let’s find out his source of income.

I for one cannot see him last more than six months in the country. The party that he will hurt will be PML (N) whose votes he might break. And that’s about it. He will never be a force to reckon with. He will fizzle out just like he always had at the political front. And whoever is bankrolling his campaign will see their money vaporize in a matter of months.