After days of staging protests in Lahore’s streets, the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) announced on Thursday that it will start a “long march” towards Islamabad on Friday, according to a statement issued by the TLP media cell.
“The peaceful Namoos-i-Risalat march of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan towards Islamabad will start after Friday prayers” from the TLP’s markaz (headquarters), the statement said, adding that the group also had a “plan B” in case its members were stopped from marching on the capital.
The agreement required the government to present the terms of a previous accord — signed between the two sides last year following protests by the TLP in a bid to pressurise the government to expel the French ambassador over the publication of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) — in parliament before April 20. The earlier agreement had said the government would reach a consensus in parliament regarding the expulsion of the French ambassador within three months, would not appoint its ambassador to France, would release all the arrested workers of the TLP and would also not register any case against the TLP leaders or workers in connection with the matter.
The TLP’s executive council had said in its statement that the government had promised the implementation of the agreement within three days of the signing of the accord but none of the commitments had been fulfilled even after the passage of six months. It had warned the government of announcing a plan of action if its demands remained unfulfilled.
“We have tried staging protests without blocking roads and have exposed the ugly face of the government to the public,” it had said, adding that a minister from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet had agreed to the terms of the agreement and now he was in denial.
