TLP ends sit-in at Wazirabad after govt’s de-notification as proscribed organisation

LAHORE: The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) ended its sit-in at Wazirabad on Monday after the government de-notified the religious party as a proscribed organisation “in the larger national interest”.

TLP leader Syed Sarwar Shah announced the decision while addressing the charged protesters at Wazirabad on Monday afternoon.

Shah shared that the party’s negotiator Mufti Muneebur Rehman had given them the guarantee and asked them to go back to Masjid Rahmatulil Alameen in Lahore when 50 per cent of their demands were implemented.

The TLP has been on the roads since October 22 when it started its long march towards Islamabad from Lahore.

Multiple police personnel were martyred and over 250 others were also injured during the clashes with the TLP. The religious party had also claimed the death of its several workers but the claims are yet to be verified.

Last week, Punjab Government had sent a summary to the federal government, requesting it to remove TLP from the First Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. TLP was placed on schedule in April 2021 on the recommendations of the Punjab home department.

The move was part of the deal struck between the government and the TLP.

The Imran Khan-led government started implementing the accord signed with the TLP on October 31 in an apparent bid to stop thousands of activists of the party from marching towards Islamabad despite a governmental clampdown.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan had announced the peace deal in a press conference in Islamabad last week.

Following the implementation of the agreement, so far, hundreds of TLP workers have also been set free.

According to TLP leader Syed Sarwar Shah, the party was ending its sit-in but will continue to monitor the situation from Masjid Rahmatulil Alameen — the party’s headquarters.

“We will not go to our homes but we will go to Masjid Rahmatulil Alameen,” Shah said. He assured the TLP supporters that their party chief Saad Rizvi will be among them on his father’s first death anniversary. The first anniversary of the founder of the TLP Khaddim Hussain Rizvi would be held from November 19-21 at Masjid Rahmatulil Alameen.

“[Mufti Muneeb had also guaranteed] that Saad Rizvi will attend the [Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s] first death anniversary with us,” he told the charged crowd.

However, the TLP leader told the protesters that Rizvi had told the government that they can keep him behind bars but warned them of resolving the matter related to the expulsion of the French ambassador. He also claimed that he had ‘evidence’ that the government was considering forming a committee on the issue.

Shah demanded the government to comply with the remaining demands within the time agreed by both parties.