Protests prompt Pakistan to talk to banned extremist group TLP

Hossam al-Haddad

Pakistan began talks with an extremist group it banned last week, in an effort to control religious violence that has become a major challenge to Prime Minister Imran Khan as he struggles to revive the economy.

Talks are taking place between the Khan administration and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), an Islamist party calling for the expulsion of the French envoy, after violent protests in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, killed at least three people last Sunday, according to a statement by Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad and local media reports. Rasheed said that the banned group released the 11 police officers they had taken hostage earlier in the day.

Prime Minister Khan said in a televised address that Pakistan could not afford to expel the French ambassador because that would amount to severing ties with the European Union. He said such protests would harm the country economically, adding that he would start a global campaign against blasphemy.

Days of riots prompted the Khan government to ban TLP last Thursday, but that did not stop protests calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador due to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron last year regarding the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him). Businesses and shops were partially closed in Karachi and Lahore at the call of merchant groups to protest the government action, and the main stock exchange slumped 1.5% before recovering some of the losses.

Hamza Kamal, chief investment analyst at Karachi-based AKD Securities Ltd., said the shares were down due to the political uncertainty caused by the strike and the protests, adding, “It is weighing down on investor sentiment.”

TLP, which initially paralyzed the country with violent protests three years ago and forced the then-minister of law and justice to resign, emerged as a powerful political force when it ranked sixth in the 2018 national elections with 2.2 million votes.

Last year, it called off its protest after the Khan government agreed to seek parliamentary approval to expel the French ambassador, and last week the group staged nationwide protests that left two policemen dead.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), the largest group representing the media in the country, is also protesting the crackdown on coverage of the protests by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), and last Friday the government suspended social media services, including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, for four hours, in an unprecedented move aimed at countering the repercussions of the protests.

Pakistan just reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on restarting a $6 billion bailout program after avoiding a financial crisis just two years ago, and the country has found itself with little room for policy mistakes as the corona pandemic affects the economy.