Punjab cabinet gives nod for lifting ban on TLP

Summary will be sent to the federal government following approval by 18 provincial lawmakers

LAHORE:

In a major development, the Punjab government on Thursday acquired the consent of the requisite number of provincial cabinet members to lift the ban on the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), after the initial approval of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to revoke the proscription of the religious outfit.

Sources privy to the development disclosed that the government required the consent of at least 18 provincial cabinet members.

The Punjab government will now forward its recommendations to the Centre for revoking the ban on the TLP.

After receiving the nod from the chief minister, the cabinet wing of the services department had circulated a summary containing recommendations to end the TLP’s proscribed status among the ministers.

Though a meeting of the provincial cabinet was scheduled on Thursday and approval of the summary was among one of the main items on its agenda, but for some unknown reasons, this meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour for an indefinite period.

All these developments happened as a result of an agreement between the federal government and the TLP on October 31.

Now the Punjab government has completed its homework to lift the ban on the religious party, which took to the streets for the release of its chief Saad Rizvi and press the government to shut down the French embassy over the publication of blasphemous content in that country.

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An official communiqué available with The Express Tribune read that as per rules, the provincial ministers had a three-day time for expressing their consent. However, the government managed to acquire the requisite number of approvals on the same day because it had been decided to end this fiasco at the earliest.

The provincial government has also decided to release around 100 TLP activists and remove the names of around 90 of them from the Fourth Schedule, a section of the Anti-Terrorism Act that permits the law-enforcement agencies to monitor suspected terrorists.

This decision was made during a meeting presided over by Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat -- one of the members of the steering committee formed to implement the clauses of the agreement.

The government had earlier banned the TLP by declaring it a "militant organisation" for creating unrest in the country through a series of violent clashes with the law enforcement agencies.

A day earlier, hundreds of activists of the outfit arrested across Punjab were released as part of the pact.

The steering committee met for the second time and key decisions were made including the release of TLP activists, who were not directly involved in violence.

It was also decided to withdraw the appeal filed by the Punjab government in the Supreme Court against the release of the TLP chief.