ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal cabinet unanimously approved a summary declaring religiopolitical party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) a proscribed organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Thursday, following violent clashes between the party’s supporters and law enforcement personnel earlier this month.
The Punjab government announced last Friday it had formally approved a recommendation to ban the TLP and sent it to the government for final enforcement. Punjab’s move came a few days after a pre-dawn operation by law enforcement authorities in Muridke, a town near Lahore, where the TLP had set up a protest camp en route to Islamabad. The crackdown led to violent clashes and dozens of arrests, effectively halting the group’s planned march.
The party said its march toward Islamabad was for peaceful purposes and was intended to culminate in a sit-in outside the US Embassy in Islamabad to demonstrate solidarity with Gaza.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday chaired a meeting of the federal cabinet in which the interior ministry submitted the summary to ban the TLP on behalf of the Punjab government, the PMO said. The cabinet was briefed on the “violent and terrorist” activities of the TLP across the country, it added.
