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Saad Hussain Rizvi, the chief of the recently proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), was released from Kot Lakhpat jail on Tuesday.
The development was confirmed to Dawn.com by the public relations officer of the Punjab prisons department, Attiq Ahmed.
Shortly after being released, Rizvi reached Yateem Khana Chowk, Ahmed added.
TLP leader Faizan Ahmed also confirmed Rizvi’s release and said he is expected to address the party’s supporters soon.
His release came hours before a National Assembly session was scheduled to take place to vote on the expulsion of the French ambassador — one of the key demands of the party.
The vote is in line with the agreement reached between the TLP and the government last year to involve parliament in order to decide the matter in three months.
As the Feb 16 deadline neared, the government had expressed its inability to implement the agreement and had sought more time. The TLP had then agreed to delay its protest by two-and-a-half months to April 20.
Last week, Saad Rizvi, in a video message, had asked TLP workers to be ready to launch the long march if government failed to meet the deadline. The move had prompted the government to arrest him on April 12.
Police had swooped on Rizvi at around 2pm on Wahdat Road in Lahore where he had gone to attend a funeral. Outraged, the TLP had issued a call for countrywide protests.
The next day, police registered an FIR against the TLP chief under sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Within the next few hours, protesters took to the streets in Lahore and blocked the Grand Trunk Road on a number of points.
Read: Why could PTI not manage TLP challenge?
All main cities like Lahore, Gujranwala, Islamabad and Peshawar were cut off from each other and the rest of the country. The activists held sit-ins at various points in Hyderabad and Sukkur. They blocked highways, motorways and train tracks, disrupting life in a better part of the country and causing violence as protesters clashed with police at many places.
The violence claimed several lives and left hundreds injured before the government announced on April 15 it had decided to ban the TLP under the anti-terrorism law.
Govt to table resolution on French envoy’s expulsion
Earlier today, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced that the government will present a resolution on the expulsion of the French ambassador in the National Assembly later today.
In a video statement, he said the decision was taken after another round of talks with the TLP.
Rashid said that the TLP had agreed to call off protests across the country. “Talks with the party will continue,” he said.
The minister said that cases registered against TLP workers under the Fourth Schedule will also be withdrawn, adding that he will give a detailed briefing on the development via a press conference later today.
‘TLP and govt have same objective’
On Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that although his government and the TLP had the same goal to end incidents of blasphemy around the world, their methodologies to deal with the issue were different.
In a televised address to the nation, the premier referred to the violence perpetrated by TLP activists over the last week after their leader’s arrest and the ensuing government crackdown as “regrettable” incidents.
Imran said like the TLP, the government too wanted that there was no blasphemy against the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in any country.
“Only our methods are different,” he said, noting that while the TLP wanted the French ambassador to be expelled and Pakistan’s relations to be severed with France, his government had adopted a different strategy.
He continued: “Around 1990, Salman Rushdie wrote a book in which he disrespected our Prophet. The public came out on Pakistani streets, the American embassy was attacked and people were martyred too.
“After that, you can see [in history] that after every few years, someone in any Western country does blasphemy against him. Muslims are hurt, there are reactions abroad too and demonstrations here in our country as well but the same process continues after every few years.”
“Has this approach made any difference?” the premier asked, saying the TLP was protesting in the manner seen in the past as well.
“Now, I ask will sending the French ambassador back and cutting off all ties with them stop this? Is there any guarantee that no one will commit blasphemy after that?” he said.
The prime minister said even if Pakistan took steps against France, the same disrespect could be done in any other European country “in the name of freedom of opinion”.
“There they’ve made it an issue of freedom of expression and on that basis, they will also commit blasphemy [if we take action against France]. So will we send the ambassador [of that country] back too?”