ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is to free more than 2,000 jailed activists of a banned Islamist militant group and allow the movement to contest elections, under a deal with the government struck to end weeks of violent clashes, negotiators on both sides said.
In return, the Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan has agreed to shun the politics of violence and withdraw its longstanding demand to have France’s ambassador expelled over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by a French satirical magazine, they told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The caricatures have triggered repeated demonstrations by the group to protest at what it considers blasphemy.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government banned the TLP after its protests turned violent earlier this year, designated it a terrorist group and arrested its chief Saad Rizvi.
The government and the movement said at the weekend they had reached an agreement to help end the clashes, but neither side gave details.
Two members of the TLP’s negotiating team and one from the government side told Reuters the centerpiece of the deal was to lift the ban and allow the group to contest elections.
“The state has acknowledged that the TLP is neither a terrorist group nor a banned outfit,” another member of the TLP negotiation team, Bashir Farooqi, separately told local Dunya News TV.
In addition, the government has agreed not to contest the release of the group’s jailed leader as well as nearly 2,300 activists and to remove their names from a terrorist watch list, the three negotiators told Reuters.
Punjab province Law Minister Raja Basharat said nearly 1,000 of the activists had already been released.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry did not respond to a request for comment.
The settlement came after seven police officers were killed and hundreds more were wounded as they confronted thousands of TLP demonstrators marching up Pakistan’s busiest highway from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital Islamabad.
The group, which can mobilize thousands of supporters, was born in 2015 out of a protest campaign to seek the release of a police guard who assassinated a provincial governor in 2011 over his calls to reform blasphemy legislation.
It entered politics in 2017 and surprised the political elite by securing over 2 million votes in the 2018 election.
The next national election is scheduled for 2023, and analysts expect political groups to start gearing up from early next year.
Despite the agreement, TLP demonstrators have refused to clear the Grand Trunk Road highway, which they have blocked for more than two weeks, until the government showed good progress on the agreement, its leaders said.
Pakistan to allow banned religious group to contest votes to end clashes
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Pakistan to allow banned religious group to contest votes to end clashes
- In return, Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan will shun politics of violence, withdraw demand to have France’s ambassador expelled
- Government banned TLP after its protests turned violent earlier this year, designated it a terror group and arrested its chief
Pakistan confers highest civilian award on Jordan’s King Abdullah II
- King Abdullah II, President Asif Ali Zardari review regional and global developments, with a focus on the Middle East
- The two leaders reject any displacement of Palestinians, emphasize need for a Two-State solution, Zardari’s office says
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday conferred Pakistan’s highest civilian award, ‘Nishan-e-Pakistan,’ on Jordan’s King Abdullah II during his state visit to the South Asian country, President Zardari’s office said.
The honor was bestowed on the visiting monarch at a special investiture ceremony attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, members of the federal cabinet, military chiefs and members of the diplomatic corps.
On the occasion, the Jordanian king also conferred on President Zardari the ‘Wisam Al-Nahdah Al-Mursa,’ or the Order of the Renaissance, according to the Pakistan president’s office.
President Zardari and King Abdullah earlier held a meeting, at which they reaffirmed longstanding, fraternal ties between Pakistan and Jordan, and discussed the full range of bilateral relations.
“They also reviewed regional and international developments of mutual concern, with particular focus on peace, stability and security in the Middle East,” the president’s office said in a statement.
“They noted the need to build on the strength of these relations and to encourage greater people-to-people contact between the two countries.”
Both sides underlined the importance of working together in multilateral forums and of promoting humanitarian and development cooperation, according to President Zardari’s office.
On Palestine, the president and the Jordanian king reiterated their shared principled position on post-war Gaza.
“They rejected any displacement of Palestinians and emphasized the need for a Two-State solution. They called for the establishment of an independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous State of Palestine on pre-June 1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” the statement read.
“Both leaders expressed confidence in the future direction of Pakistan-Jordan relations and agreed to maintain close coordination on bilateral, regional and global issues.”
