TLP files plea with interior ministry for reviewing ban

Ministry to meet tomorrow to deliberate on ban imposed earlier this month

ISLAMABAD:

The proscribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) filed a review petition on Thursday with the secretary of interior against the ban imposed on it for countrywide rioting earlier this month, it has emerged.

The government has reportedly called a meeting tomorrow to deliberate on the matter.

Nearly a week ago, on April 21, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said that the organistion had 30 days to challenge the ban.

“The writ of the state is intact and it is not under anyone's pressure,” Rashid told a news conference, a day after the TLP called off its nationwide protest following a deal with the government negotiated by a group of religious scholars and spiritual leaders.

He said the agreement reached between the government and the TLP states that the state would decide matters relating to bilateral ties and not a group or an individual.

Read 50 detained TLP activists moved to Jhelum jail

On April 14, the government decided to ban the ultra right-wing party under the country's anti-terrorism law.

The protests were triggered by the arrest of TLP chief Saad Rizvi on April 12. The arrest was made in an attempt to preempt a protest sit-in by the group in the federal capital.

The TLP had been demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador over the publication of blasphemous caricatures. In November last year, the party staged a sit-in in Rawalpindi, which ended after an agreement with the government.

The party announced on November 17 that the government had accepted all its four demands. The TLP had released a copy of the handwritten agreement, carrying signatures of Qadri, then interior minister Ijaz Shah and the deputy commissioner, Islamabad.

The agreement said that the government would take a decision from the parliament regarding the expulsion of the French ambassador within three months, will not appoint its ambassador to France and release all the arrested workers of the TLP.