LAHORE – The Punjab Home Department has started preparing a list of Tehreek-e-Labbaik leaders to remove their names from the Fourth Schedule – a police watchlist, reported a private media outlet on Tuesday.
According to the report, the department has decided that all the leaders mentioned in the list will be kept under surveillance, but police will not interfere in their affairs. In normal practice, people in the Fourth schedule are kept under surveillance and police can, if necessary, interfere in their matters.
According to highly placed sources, 30 Tehreek-e-Labbaik leaders, including the chiefs of the two factions, Khadim Hussain Rizvi and Asif Jalali, were in the Fourth Schedule and a meeting would take place between the TLP leaders and official of the Home Department in the next two days to settle the matter.
The Punjab Home Department has also issued a notification to release 1,500 Tehreek-e-Labbaik workers and leaders, arrested during the Islamabad protest, The News reported.
Last month the Khadam Rizvi faction of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) kept the capital city besieged for 22 days and encouraged his followers to carry on protests in the whole country. The events of protest turned ugly after a clash between police and protesters.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/dozens-arrested-as-police-launch-crackdown-on-islamabad-protesters/
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/interior-ministry-calls-army-to-control-situation-in-islamabad-after-day-long-clashes/
Khadam Rizvi called off the strike after striking a deal with the government which was brokered by a senior officer of Pak Army. In the signed agreement, between the two parties, the government agreed to meet all the demands of TLP and, in compliance with one of the demands, Federal Minister for Law Zahid Hamid resigned from his post.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/islamabad-sit-in-to-be-called-off-after-zahid-hamids-resignation/
TLP’s chief Khadam Hussain Rizvi claimed that, apart from the official agreement, the government of Punjab had also agreed to meet extra demands which were not mentioned in the ‘Faizabad deal’.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/govt-agreed-to-few-more-demands-besides-faizabad-deal-claims-khadim-hussain-rizvi/
However, the claims were rejected by the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who clarified that no representative of Tehreek-e-Labbaik would be included in Punjab Nisab committee.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/cm-shehbaz-rejects-inclusion-of-tehreek-e-labbaik-reps-in-punjab-nisab-committee/
The Punjab Home Department’s decision to remove TLP leaders from the Fourth Schedule raised some serious suspicions about the agreement.
The official agreement, signed by the Federal government and TLP’s leadership, is currently being questioned by Islamabad High Court.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/interior-minister-ahsan-iqbal-appears-before-ihc-at-short-notice/
Moreover, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) also showed dismay over the language used by the Faizabad protesters.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/state-kneeled-before-faizabad-protesters-observes-justice-shaukat-aziz-siddiqui/
The Fourth Schedule refers to a list of interdicted individuals, on the basis of suspicion of terrorism or spreading sectarianism under Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. The names of these individuals are included in the Fourth Schedule as prescribed by the Home Department, after credible intelligence information. Those included in the Fourth Schedule can face restrictions on travel, speech and business.
