LAHORE: Following the “successful” negations with the government, the Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan (TLP) that had blocked several key arteries in Lahore and other parts of the city, ended its protest on late Thursday night.
As part of the latest agreement with the Punjab government, the party’s demands of “registering FIRs against the killing of its workers in Islamabad last year, releasing the Raja Zafarul Haq committee report, and quashing cases against its activists were agreed to”.
Speaking to journalists at Data Darbar, TLP leader Pir Afzal Qadri said that the government had agreed to fulfil the terms of the Faizabad agreement that was brokered last year. “Government officials reiterated that the report over the controversial amendment made to the Elections Act 2017 – prepared by a Raja Zafarul Haq-led commission – would be made public,” he said.
Qadri also claimed that the government had agreed to drop the cases registered against TLP leaders and workers.
“The government had been wrong in assuming that the TLP was incapable of mounting a sustained protest and mustering support,” he added after the talks that lasted for almost four hours.
He said that the government had permitted them to use loudspeakers for Azan. Qadri said Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah would meet TLP leaders to present an explanation. “We will implement the decisions taken by our leadership” Qadri vowed, saying the protests would have spread nationwide had the government not arrived on the negotiating table. TLP supremo Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi also confirmed that the agitation had been called off.
Subsequently, traffic resumed on the GT Road and at Lahore’s exit and entry points after the protest ended. Traffic also resumed at Karachi’s Numaish Chowrangi locality where the party workers had staged a sit-in.
Authorities removed containers placed on Kala Shah Kaku Interchange following the development, while Lahore-Islamabad Motorway was reopened for traffic.
The near 11-day sit-in had brought business activity and traffic in the area to a virtual halt.
The Zafarul Haq-led committee was formed to probe the issue of the amendment to the oath regarding the finality of prophethood when the Elections Act 2017 was passed last year.
The earlier week-long Faizabad protest of the party against the amendment to the Elections Act had seen the removal of the then law minister Zahid Hamid. However, the protest was called off after a deal brokered by the army.
Published in Daily Times, April 14th 2018.
