Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed, while speaking at a press conference about the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) protests in the country, stated that he found the party’s leader Saad Hussain Rizvi “more cooperative” than others, reports Geo News.
He said the government has reached an understanding, and negotiations with the banned organisation are going well. In the press conference, he shared an agreement between the government and the TLP which will be presented in the National Assembly (NA) as per the minister.
He further clarified that the government was not interested in a confrontation with any organisation while mentioning that “no one should damage public property as well.”
According to the interior minister, he wants to conclude the matter once and for all because something new happens every six months and people face difficulties, reported Dawn.
According to Rasheed, the government will guard the commitment made to the banned organisation.
Regarding Rizvi’s release, the minister said, “A lot of other people insist on freeing him right now. Decisions cannot be taken right now. There is a legal process that we will follow. We will talk to the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan [who is currently in Saudi Arabia] after his return tomorrow.”
He further said the premier had instructed his principal secretary before leaving for the visit to ask the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to unfreeze the accounts of TLP madrassah and to allow them to open new ones.
Furthermore, he disclosed that he had requested to not be included in the government’s negotiating committee because as per him [Rasheed] “it is not the work of the interior ministry but the Punjab government”, but the idea was rejected on the insistence of Saad Rizvi and another TLP leader, Ghulam Ghaus Baghdadi.
Earlier, the federal government announced that the cases against the TLP workers would be withdrawn by Wednesday (Oct 27) and assured them that the authorities would also oversee the charges imposed under the fourth schedule.
Under the Fourth Schedule, the suspects of terrorism and sectarianism are placed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
In a tweet, Rasheed said, “We have released 350 TLP workers up to now.”
Because of last week’s protest in Lahore, three policemen were martyred in clashes with TLP while the banned organisation had claimed that their 500 workers were injured.
