Every political party in Pakistan, before coming into power, has made questionable alliances with the religious right parties, the most recent example being PML-N’s alliance with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F). Making these alliances eventually results in these parties having to give some political power to the religious right they allied with to fulfill their promise, and gives the right a platform to promote intolerance, sectarian violence, and a complete disregard for minorities’ rights.
Previously, the TLP claimed that they had reached an agreement with the government wherein the government was supposedly accepting all their demands including expulsion of the French ambassador within three months, releasing already arrested TLP workers and not arresting any more TLP workers (Dawn). After the TLP leader Saad Hussain Rizvi was arrested on 12 April, the TLP carried out extremely violent protests with the intention of “jamming the entire country”. Rizvi is carrying forth the legacy of his dead father, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who died in November 2020, by demanding the deportation of the French ambassador after the Charlie Hebdo cartoons incident. From their inception, TLP has proudly worn their extremist agenda like a badge; a senior TLP leader claimed in 2018: “When it involves the honour of the Prophet Muhammad, the finality of his Prophethood or the dishonouring of his person, then every Muslim will become an extremist” (Al-Jazeera).
TLP has repeatedly caused civil unrest and opposed key reforms, and government action is long due. Party workers and supporters have participated in violent protests across the country for the past three days now, and their hostile acts have resulted in the injuries of 340 people and the deaths of around 4 people, including two policemen as some TLP supporters decided to arm themselves and were well trained in this respect.
The French embassy within Pakistan has directed French nationals and companies to leave the country for a while, with the embassy running with limited staff. The actions of TLP are straining key relationships of Pakistan with important European allies. The TLP has endangered the lives of people through these violent riots amidst a pandemic which is only worsening, and these extremist actions have caused deaths. The recent government orders have banned the party under Rule 11(b) of the Anti-Terrorism Law of 1997. Police reports have also been filed against individuals from TLP who were active participants in the riots.
But is this government action too little, too late? Laws that could charge the religio-political parties with several misdemeanors have been established for quite a while now, but the government has only chosen to take action now. Not only the incumbent government, but past governments have also failed to act decisively when TLP and other religio-political parties caused unrest in the nation with their divisive ideologies meant to actively incite violence. This is linked to the alliances made with these parties as a desperate move to gain more votes.
The state urgently needs to address the problems of sectarian violence, riots, terrorist attacks, and the lack of rights granted to minorities in the country. All of these problems can be linked to the far right opposing any and all laws that could possibly result in some peace in the country for the average citizen. It is not only the democratic political parties that have granted the religious right a platform for their extremism, but also the military governments which have used religion as a source of legitimacy for their undemocratic rules in a democratic state and thus unwisely involved maulanas in the policy-making process. The objectionable actions of previous governments are still haunting the nation, and the current government’s move to ban TLP should not stop with this party, but should be applicable to religio-political parties everywhere in Pakistan, especially violent ones because their existence is simply unconstitutional. Toleration of these parties by the state has only resulted in more violence; there can be no tolerance of intolerance.