- Notification issues as federal cabinet approves summary by Interior Ministry
- TLP requested Punjab govt for its de-proscription on April 29
ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry on Sunday issued a notification to announce the revocation of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) proscribed status, days after the government reached a deal with the group to end its violent protest march to Islamabad.
The notification was issued hours after the federal cabinet approved the proposal by the Interior Ministry seeking the TLP’s de-proscription.
TLP was placed in the said schedule in April 2021 on the recommendation of the Punjab home department.
According to a notification by the Ministry of Interior today: “The provincial cabinet has considered the request of the organisation and in view of the assurance and commitment by the organisation, is of the opinion that the said organisation shall abide by the Constitution and laws of the country and therefore, keeping in view the larger national interest and long term perspective to ensure that such incidents do not recur in future, the government of Punjab has proposed to the federal government to consider revoking of proscription of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.”
The notice goes on to state that “in exercise of the powers conferred under sub-section (1) of Section 11U of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 (as amended), the federal government is pleased to remove the name of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan from the First Schedule of the said Act as a proscribed organisation for the purposes of the said Act”.
On November 4, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar granted the initial approval to the summary sent to him by the Punjab home department for the revocation of the TLP’s proscribed status.
After granting preliminary approval to the summary, the chief minister sent it to the Federal Cabinet to take a final decision regarding the matter through circulation, sources told Pakistan Today.
The cabinet wing of the services department sent the summary to all the ministers of the province for their signatures, with sources saying that the summary needs the support of at least 18 ministers to be approved.
As per the rules, if no reply is received within three days, the summary was to be considered approved.
Meanwhile, in compliance with a secretive deal between the government and the proscribed TLP, the Punjab government decided to remove the names of at least 90 activists of the proscribed outfit from the fourth schedule.
The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Law Minister Punjab Raja Basharat in Lahore.
The meeting also decided to release 100 other activists of the organisation from different jails in the province and reviewed the decisions taken by the steering committee formed to deal with all TLP-related matters.
Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rao Sardar Ali Khan, Additional Chief Secretary Home Zafar Nasrullah and others were present in the meeting.
The government had declared the TLP a proscribed outfit under the anti-terror law in April this year, after three days of violent protests by the group’s members across the country.
A day earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had approved the submission of the summary to his cabinet while an anti-terrorism court granted post-arrest bail to several leaders of the group in the criminal cases registered with different police stations.
“The cabinet considered the summary dated Nov 6, submitted by the Interior Division, which was circulated in terms of Rule 17 (1)(b) read with Rule 19 (1) of the Rules of Business, 1973 for ‘de-proscription of TLP’ and approved the proposal,” says the decision by the cabinet.
According to the Rules of Business, 1973, approval by circulation means that a summary is sent to federal ministers for their opinion. The ministers’ recommendations are then sent to the prime minister after a stipulated period of time for further decisions on the matter. If a minister fails to respond within the stipulated time period, it is assumed that they have approved the recommendations made in the summary.
As per the contents of the Ministry of Interior’s summary, the TLP had made a request to the Punjab government for its de-proscription on April 29.
A proscription review committee (PRC) was then constituted to deliberate on the matter and it concluded that the government’s decision to declare the TLP a proscribed outfit was “based on merit”, the summary said while recalling the history of the entire episode.
It added that the views of the law ministry had also been obtained on the matter.
“In view of the commitment and assurance given by the organisation (TLP)” as well as “keeping in view the larger national interest”, the provincial cabinet asked the federal government to consider de-proscription of the TLP, the summary had noted.
