KARACHI: Saad Rizvi, the head of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan religious political party, has called on his supporters to “immediately” halt protests being held across the country against Rizvi’z arrest, the party chief said in a handwritten letter shared on Twitter on Thursday by a top government aide.
TLP supporters have been holding violent nationwide protests since Monday when Rizvi was arrested for threatening to launch a major protest campaign against the government if it did not expel France’s envoy to Islamabad over blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) printed in a French publication last year.
“I am addressing all shura [TLP council] members and Tehreek-e-Labaik workers and appeal that no illegal activity should be done for the sake of people and in the better interest of the country,” Rizvi said in his note, which was tweeted by Dr. Shahbaz Gill, special adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan on political communication.
“All protest demonstrations and roadblocks should be immediately cleared. All workers should return to their homes peacefully. Fully cooperate with the law enforcement agencies.”
— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) April 15, 2021
Neither Rizvi himself, nor any of his party leaders, could be reached for comment on the note.
Rizvi’s appeal comes a day after Pakistan’s federal cabinet approved a proposal by the interior ministry to ban TLP and file a case with the Supreme Court to dissolve the religious party, which is a registered political party with the Election Commission of Pakistan. The interior ministry says it is moving to have the party banned for killing two policemen, attacking law enforcement forces and disrupting public life during this week’s protests.
“We have proscribed [the TLP] and the notification for that will be issued shortly,” federal interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters on Thursday. “Tomorrow, we will send another summary to the cabinet to file a reference in the Supreme Court since we are moving toward [TLP’s] dissolution.”
The TLP gained prominence in Pakistan’s 2018 federal elections, campaigning to defend the country’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam. The party also has a history of staging protests and sit-ins to pressure the government to accept its demands.
In November 2017, Rizvi’s followers staged a 21-day protest and sit-in after a reference to the sanctity of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was removed from the text of a government form.
In the 2018 elections, the party managed to win two seats in the Sindh Assembly from Karachi and got a female member elected on a reserved seat of the assembly.
Religious parties — some new, others long-established — fielded more than 1,500 candidates for national and provincial assemblies in Pakistan’s general election on July 25, 2018.
