Pakistan’s interior minister hopes details of government’s TLP deal will be released in 10 days

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Saturday he was hopeful the government’s agreement with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party would be released in the next seven to 10 days, reported the local media.
The TLP launched a major protest demonstration in the country’s most densely populated Punjab province in October, seeking the release of its incarcerated leader Saad Rizvi along with the expulsion of the French envoy to Pakistan over the publication of anti-Islam caricatures in his country last year.
This led to deadly clashes between the police and supporters of the religious group which claimed the lives of at least seven law enforcement personnel and left several of them injured.
TLP workers were instructed to march on Islamabad, though they camped in Wazirabad city after the government requisitioned paramilitary Rangers to deal with the protesters.
Pakistani officials also tried to pacify the situation by negotiating with the religious party, though they said they were going to announce the details of the government’s agreement with the group at the “right time.”
“An agreement has been decided with the TLP,” the interior minister was quoted by Dawn after he interacted with a group of journalists in the federal capital. “The hope is ... [its details] will come out in seven to 10 days and they will be positive.”
The minister maintained he did not actively participate in the negotiation process which was carried out by the country’s religious affairs ministry and Punjab administration.
Since announcing that it had reached an agreement, the government has released about 2,000 TLP activists who were arrested for perpetrating violence from prison.
Some of the prominent TLP leaders have also been taken off a terrorism watchlist, and the organization has managed to shun its proscribed status.
The interior minister told journalists the central government had banned the religious party on the recommendation of the Punjab administration, adding the Pakistani authorities restored the group’s status after the provincial government rescinded its decision.