Punjab govt pushes to ban rightwing TLP after Muridke clashes

Punjab Home Department gives one-month deadline to surrender illegal arms, register legal weapons

Punjab is considering banning the rightwing Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan after scores of policemen were injured trying to prevent the party from marching on to Islamabad from Lahore.

This would be the second time the party risks being banned. The last time was briefly in 2021 after similar street fights.

The TLP wanted to head to Islamabad to protest outside the US Embassy in a show of solidarity with Palestinians. As the police and protesters clashed, the demonstrators set fire to scores of vehicles and 48 policemen were injured.

Read: Punjab cracks down on TLP activists

It took a six-hour operation at 3am in Muridke to end the protest, leading to mass arrests and the suspension of internet services in affected areas. There were reports of Saad Rizvi being injured. He is believed to have gone underground.

Given the outbreak of violence, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and her law-and-order team thus decided Wednesday to place the TLP on the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act. This is a law that allows the government to restrict the travel, speech and business of individuals linked to a banned outfit.

The TLP was formed in 2015 by Saad Rizvi’s father, the cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, to act as a pressure group on the blasphemy laws.

Read more: Police file terrorism case against TLP after deadly Muridke clashes

Under the ban, TLP’s properties and assets would be taken over by the Auqaf Department. Its posters, banners, and advertisements are banned. Its social media accounts will be blocked, and its bank accounts frozen.

In addition to this, the Punjab government is enforcing the Loudspeaker Act that prohibits the use of loud, unnecessary noise that could disturb comfort, health and safety.

The Punjab Home Department has also given people one month to surrender illegal arms and register legal weapons. It increased the punishment for possessing illegal arms to 14 years in jail and a fine of up to Rs2 million.

Also read: Case registered against TLP chief, 21 others

In 2021, the TLP was briefly banned for staging a country-wide protest, with Punjab at the epicenter. The ban was lifted after eight months when TLP supporters protested to demand TLP chief Saad Rizvi’s release.

After the ban was lifted, the TLP made a comeback to emerge as the third-largest party in Punjab in the general elections.