ISLAMABAD: An influential Pakistani Islamist party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), has started internal deliberations to find a suitable political successor to its founder, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who died after a brief illness in Lahore on Thursday.
Rizvi died at the age of 54, days after leading demonstrations on the outskirts of Islamabad against France to protest the publication of caricatures disparaging Prophet Muhammad. Officials did not immediately provide the cause of his death. His final rites will be offered on Saturday morning in Lahore.
"We will obviously settle the succession issue after his burial with consensus of all the senior party leaders,” Pir Ejaz Ahmad Ashrafi, a senior TLP leader, told Arab News on Friday.
A controversial preacher on wheelchair who used strong language to revile his critics, Rizvi was accused of weaponizing the issue of blasphemy in Pakistan where religious sensitivities usually run high.
He established the TLP in 2015 to protest the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard who murdered Punjab's governor in 2011 for defending a Pakistani Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was charged with blasphemy and sentenced to death.
Anti-blasphemy protests organized by TLP in 2017 paralyzed Islamabad for several weeks, and were only dispersed after a military-brokered deal. Rizvi and his party also held nationwide protests against Bibi's acquittal in October 2018.
Pakistan’s mainstream media usually avoided covering Rizvi's activities and his party’s protests, but TLP reached the masses through the effective use of social media, where most of its leader’s speeches went viral.
“He was a good orator and emerged as a charismatic leader in the Barelvi sect to strengthen the party’s political face,” Sabookh Syed, an expert on religio-political parties, told Arab News.
Most of the TLP's followers belong to the Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam, the largest sect in Pakistan, and it holds significant influence in Punjab province.
According to Syed, no other member of Rizvi’s stature was currently within the TLP ranks and the succession process "will be a challenging and difficult phase" for the group.
Rizvi’s son, he said, could be a favorite candidate as per traditions and culture of religio-political parties in Pakistan. “The TLP was apparently a person-specific movement that could fade away with the passage of time … its rigor and presence will all depend on the new leadership,” Syed added.
Dr. Hassan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst, told Arab News that there is no obvious successor to the late TLP leader and the party is likely to face uncertainty for some time.
“Khadim Rizvi had a personal appeal to engage public through his sermons and speeches which is hard to match by any other member of his party,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistan army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa tweeted their condolences over Rizvi's death on Thursday night, while Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri said in a statement that the nation had "lost a great religious scholar."
