KARACHI: Just a day earlier on Wednesday, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was the only party whose supporters were protesting all over Pakistan against the apex court’s decision to acquit a Christian woman on death row.
On Thursday, that number grew to hundreds after workers from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) defied the ban on demonstrations and amassed at the Karachi Press Club to hear the fiery speeches of their party leaders. They chanted slogans of support as Rashid Mehmood Soomro, Sindh President of the JUI-F, asked the protestors if they would join in to lay siege on the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
At the core is the issue of Aasia Bibi, a 51-year-old woman who was on death row for the past eight years after being convicted on blasphemy charges by a lower court in 2010. The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the decision citing a lack of credible evidence in her case, acquitting Bibi of all charges. Taking objection to the decision, the TLP and other religious parties are now pushing the top court to overrule the verdict, threatening that they would continue with their protests until the Supreme Court gives in.
Meanwhile, in Lahore, the Milli Yakjehti Council (MYC), an alliance of 15 religious groups, representing all schools of thoughts -- and including mainstream Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP), Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUIF), Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), and Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) -- gave a call for a nationwide strike on Friday.
“The MYC meeting presided by its president, Dr Sahibzada Abul Khair Zubair, has decided to observe a countrywide strike tomorrow,” Qaiser Sharif, central information Secretary of JIP, told Arab News.
Sharif added that the meeting also decided to hold an All Parties Conference (APC) at Lahore’s Al Qadsia mosque on Saturday. “The meeting will be followed by a media briefing, in which the future ‘line of action’ will be announced,” Sharif said. 
He added that the religious parties while condemning the “insulting” speech by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday night, have called upon his government to place Bibi on the Exit Control List, even as they announced plans to file a review petition in the case.
PROTESTS MAINSTREAMING
Zia Ur Rehman, a Karachi-based analyst, said that the TLP is a key political party which has exploited the issue of blasphemy and does not want other religious and sectarian parties to take advantage of it.
“The other religious parties, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl, did not take interest in the issue in the recent past,” said Rehman. “However, after the acquittal of Aasia Bibi, they have also jumped on the bandwagon but did not get so much praise from the religious circles.”
Abdul Jabbar Nasir, a political analyst studying the functioning of religious parties, said that PM Khan’s “unnecessary” speech on Wednesday night has given a further impetus to the cause of mainstream religious parties by pushing them to play an even more active role. “Religious political parties now believe that not launching a fierce campaign against the apex court’s judgment would result in their political and ideological death,” Nasir said.
Nasir recalls that the very foundation of TLP – led by Khadim Hussain Rizvi -- was built on the issue of blasphemy, specifically Bibi’s case. “It was the execution of Mumtaz Qadri which provided a base for Rizvi to launch his religious political party so he has no option but to go to any extreme for his survival,” Nasir opines.  “After the PM’s speech, the mainstream religious cliques would do maximum but still they would remain in limits.”
He added that TLP’s leadership is “accidental and thus not serious, so there are always chances of decisions being taken without keeping repercussions in mind. The mainstream groups would think before every likely step”.
However, Qari Muhammad Usman, central leader of the JUI-F, disagrees that protest was not a priority for the religious parties. “We were out on the road immediately after the apex court handed down the decision. We are out today and will continue to protest till the controversial decision is taken back,” Usman told Arab News.
Without naming PM Khan, the JUI-F leader said those who think only few are taking part in the protests are living in a fool’s paradise. “A governor and a federal minister have been killed whereas Mumtaz Qadri was also killed due to this case. It’s not a normal case and the apex court should have refrained from announcing a controversial verdict in it,” the JUIF leader argued.
JIP’s Sharif added that the religious parties won’t stop protesting but that the demonstrations would be completely peaceful and within the limits of the constitution.