January 18^th, 2013

Much to the dismay of professional, corrupt and hereditary politicians and to the envious anguish of politico religious clerics, allama Qadri has had his way to a great extent in getting the Islamabad Long March Declaration signed by the government. Apart from his resolute and extremely good  organizational capabilities he owes it all to the courage, determination, resilience, dedication and perseverance of the thousands of the Long March heroes – old and young, women – again old and young and the children including infants who braved the great ordeal under the most extreme climatic ravages of cold, rain and chilly winds for the five long days and nights under the open skies in the blue.

Not only that, it was probably the largest rally in the world which displayed unbelievable sense of discipline and dedication and was a most peaceful rally where under very trying and  adverse conditions not a blade of grass was damaged, not a stone was hurled nor a drop of blood was shed. And yet they achieved their objective. The rally went a long way in demolishing the image of Pakistanis as the ranting extremists and instead portrayed the real face of Pakistan and the Pakistanis to the world. I salute one and all of them and to the nation that they belong to.

“Zara num ho to yeh mitti badi zarkhez hai saqi” – Allama Iqbal.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)

Rawalpindi 
Pakistan
E.mail: [email protected]