[Testimonial / Confession by Athar Ali on #AzadiSquare Movement]

Confession: As Pakistan fell deeper and deeper in to the abyss of corruption during the last 3 decades I had an opportunity to escape and I did! Not a single leader in Pakistan allowed me (or any thinking person) slightest of the hope that one day we can change the travesty that Pakistan had become. Today I live in a democracy where even a visitor has more rights than a Pakistani citizen in Pakistan! Last four weeks has changed all that for me! What we are seeing on the streets of Islamabad is nothing new! This story has been repeated over and over again throughout the history of mankind, and history books are full of these accounts. Every time a leader has stood up to tyranny of the elite for the rights of the downtrodden and the disenfranchised the resistance has been fierce. More entrenched the corruption and the perversion fiercer the resistance has been from the corrupt rulers. I could draw parallels of what’s going on in Pakistan today with French or American revolutions but as Muslims we have to look no farther than the example of our own Prophet (PBUH). The elite of Makkah did not necessarily balk at the concept of a single Omni potent God. What made them reject the idea of a True Single Omnipotent God was the change that came with the concept of submission to Allah. And that was a change in status quo. Call to Islam was rooted in opposition to a corrupt status quo. It protested the inequity and demanded inclusiveness, unity and equality under the umbrella of the one Allah regardless of lineage, wealth, age, or gender. This is what made Islam so appealing to the disenfranchised, to slaves and, widows and orphans, and so appalling to the elite by birth or circumstance. And this is what I see today in our struggle for Pakistan.This is fulfilling the "Sunnah" of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and every other True Prophet before him. I thank PTI leaders and every person who is supporting this struggle in any capacity from the bottom of my heart. Needless to say we are supporting you and ready to make any contribution that we can.This is a defining moment in the history of Pakistan, the nation has awakened and WE MUST NOT LOSE this opportunity to dig ourselves out of the abyss.