The leadership of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) of South Punjab on Friday announced its disassociation from the banned religious political party in the wake of the ban imposed on the group over violence and unrest.
The Home Office notified the TLP ban last week, saying the federal government had “reasonable grounds” to believe the religious political party was linked to terrorism.
“Pakistan’s army is threatened by East and West,” one leader said. “The TLP, the party we were part of, called for marches and protests, so our state and our army had to face an internal war along with foreign threats.”
Referring to Pakistan’s brief but intense military escalation with India in May, he said calls for protests by the TLP during that time also worked in the enemy’s favor.
Elaborating further, he said the party is systematically benefiting the country’s enemies, which is why “we have decided to separate from the TLP.”
He added that the terrorists of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have also shown their support for the TLP in a video statement released earlier.
The ban came a day after the federal cabinet approved a proposal to ban the group under the anti-terrorism law, days after nationwide protests in Gaza claimed the lives of several protesters and police officers and paralyzed major highways and urban roads from Karachi to Islamabad.
Currently, the group has only one seat in the Punjab Assembly, held by Mehmood Ahmad for PP-55 (Narowal-ii).
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the proposal of the Punjab government. A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) after the meeting said the ban was approved “unanimously” by the federal cabinet.
The Home Office briefed cabinet on what it called the “violent and terrorist activities” of the TLP, highlighting that the organization had repeatedly incited riots across the country.
The group, founded in 2015 as a movement, became a political party in 2016. It was previously banned by the PTI government in 2021 after violent protests. The Home Office informed the cabinet that the 2021 TLP ban was lifted after six months with an assurance that it would refrain from resorting to violence. He added that TLP’s current ban was due to its failure to meet those guarantees.
