Pakistan bans a hardline Islamist party known for its fierce anti-blasphemy stance

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan banned a hardline Islamist party on Thursday, more than a week after heated clashes with police that left at least five people dead.

The ban follows a march by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party (TLP), earlier this month from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital Islamabad. It escalated into a vicious street battle between TLP supporters and police in Lahore and the nearby city of Murdike, leading to a crackdown on the party, which has become known for these violent clashes.

A statement from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said the ban was unanimously approved by the federal cabinet, citing “violent and terrorist activities”. The ban is the latest chapter in a complicated relationship between the Pakistani state and the TLP, which has attracted significant grassroots support in recent years for its hardline positions, especially on blasphemy and denigration of Islam.

Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, people who insult Islam or Islamic figures face a possible death sentence. The TLP demands death as punishment, and say human rights organizations The party’s supporters sometimes carry out brutal lynchings even before people accused of blasphemy are put on trial. Pakistan has seen one significant peak in blasphemy cases in recent years, in line with the rise of the TLP.

The TLP was officially launched as a political party in 2017 by a fiery cleric, although its ideology took hold earlier, following the 2011 assassination of the governor of Pakistan’s populous Punjab province, Salman Taseer, who was outspoken against blasphemy laws. The killing sparked a wave of support for the governor’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri, one of Taseer’s bodyguards, who was hailed by some as a hero and defender of Islam. The TLP is not considered a mainstream political party, but has wide ideological support, especially in the province of Punjab.

The initiative to ban the party came from the government in Punjab, where the recent protests took place. Before the ban, police in Punjab raided the home of TLP leader Saad Rizvi, and the government sealed mosques and seminaries linked to the party. Some members of the party are now also confronted counter-terrorism allegationsThis was said by Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari.

“This is not a religious or political party – they are hiding behind religion to spread disorder and trying to play politics over dead bodies,” Bokhari said in a statement interview with local media.

The TLP announced the protest as a show of solidarity with Palestinians following the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and demonstrators were expected to gather in front of the US embassy in Islamabad. Ahead of the protest, the government suspended mobile internet service in the capital and cordoned off major roads with shipping containers to keep protesters out.

Khurram Iqbal, associate professor of security studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said both external and internal factors created the environment for this crackdown to take place, including Pakistan’s recent realignment with the United States.

“We cannot afford to have a pressure group attack the American embassy,” he said.

Azaz Syed, a senior Pakistani journalist, says the TLP saw this dynamic as an opportunity.

“They thought they would express the concern that Pakistan is supporting America, and that America is bringing peace after a compromise with Israel,” Syed said. “They wanted to use it further to gain more support.”

But Pakistan’s civilian government and military leadership also took this as an insult, he says, and contributed to the crackdown. “It meant they were actually challenging them.”

The TLP was banned earlier in 2021 after the party staged violent protests following caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed published in France. The party called for the expulsion of the French ambassador, and thousands of people gathered in the streets to pressure the government to act on their demand. The ban came later DELETED with the condition that the TLP must refrain from violence.

Pakistani leaders have defended the current ban on the TLP as necessary to maintain law and order. In one interview along with local media, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif called for a “hard state” approach against the party.

“Such religious extremist groups, who resort to violence and cause damage to property, cannot be tolerated in Pakistan,” he said.

Pakistan has also taken a crackdown on other political parties, most recently the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, which launched in 2023. Some leaders of Khan’s party liked it protests last week against the crackdown on TLP, calling it unconstitutional.