Fearing that the closing down of the French embassy in Pakistan will invite a global outcry and trigger sanctions, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan made clear to the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protesters that their demand for closing down the French embassy cannot not be met. He also announced that the TLP should be treated as another militant outfit, not a political organisation.
“France is heading the European Union right now and is against our atomic technology and missile system. We are the Muslim world's biggest power. There is talk of sanctions in America, there is one point left to be fulfilled in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), there are economic crises,” Khan reportedly told his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday.
“The cabinet has decided to treat TLP as a militant organisation and it will be crushed as other such groups have been eliminated. The Pakistani state has defeated major terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda,” Pakistani daily Dawn reports quoting the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
Govt decides to treat TLP as militant outfit
This was yet another U-turn taken by the Imran Khan government, which had only on Monday vowed to fulfil the commitments the government made to the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) during negotiations on Sunday. The Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid had assured the leaders of the TLP that his government "had not banned the TLP". He clarified that the organisation had been banned but "we are talking about this too." He also promised them that their leader Saad Rizvi who has been under arrest since April will be released by Wednesday or Thursday after the return of the PM Khan from Saudi Arabia.
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Interestingly, PM khan, his ministers and the military establishment do not seem to be on the same page. One day the interior minister says the TLP’s demands will be met and the organisation was never banned. The next day the information minister Fawad Chaudhry is talking tough and talks about derecognising the group as a political party.
“A clear policy decision has been taken. The banned TLP will be treated as a militant party. We will not treat them as a political party,” Choudhary announced.
Accusing the government for breaking of the agreement, the TLP leaders have resumed their long march towards Islamabad, armed with machine guns, AK-47 rifles and other small arms and explosives, with “do or die '' slogans. Pakistani media reports that Imran Khan had decided not to allow the long march "under any circumstances," and that "no talks will be held with the proscribed organisation."
According to Dawn TLP protesters left Kamoke and entered Gujranwala city on Thursday afternoon.
Some 4,000 TLP workers travelled on the Grand Trunk Road in large trucks and buses along with their supplies.
Tensions are running high as Pak rangers are also out in the streets to quell the protests. The daily said that security forces have taken positions, and plan to stop the TLP activists near the Wazirabad-Chenab River area instead of Gujranwala city.
Undeterred, thousands of TLP workers enter Gujranwala as protest continues for 2nd week
The TLP challenges could not have come at a worse time for Imran Khan who was at loggerhead with the Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa over the appointment of the Inter State Intelligence (ISI) chief. Though the appointment is made but now Khan and Bajwa are certainly not on the “same page”.
According to Pakistani experts, it remains to be seen whether the military establishment will come to help Khan in managing domestic challenges.
