Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (; TLP) is a banned far-right Islamic extremist, populist political party in Pakistan.Batool, Fizza; Yilmaz, Ihsan & Shakil, Kainat. (2023). "Contest between leaders of the Ummah: Comparing civilizational populisms of PTI and TLP in Pakistan." Populism & Politics (P&P). European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). February 15, 2023. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. The party was founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi in August 2015, who also became its first ameer. TLP is currently led by Saad Hussain Rizvi. TLP became the 4th largest party in Pakistan following the 2024 Pakistani general election, securing nearly 2.9 million votes. TLP also became the 3rd largest party in the province of Punjab, Pakistan after receiving nearly 2.5 million votes in the 2024 Punjab provincial election. TLP currently holds one seat (PP-55 Narowal-II) in the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab.
TLP is known for its protests against any changes to the blasphemy law in Pakistan. It demands that Sharia be established as the Islamic law in Pakistan, through a gradual legal and political process. However, the TLP has repeatedly resorted to violent protests used to coerce the government into agreeing to their demands.
Most of the party's members belong to the Barelvi movement, a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam. The party organized and led the 2021 Pakistani protests. Party profile
Ideology TLP is a far-right Islamist populist party, its civilizational populism being centered around the concept of Nizam-e-Mustafa, the idea of establishing a hard-line Sharia-driven Islamic state, catering to the country's Sunni majority population in general and to the Barelvis in particular while targeting minorities such as the Ahmadiyya, criticizing the elite for abandoning Sharia and being overall critical of Western civilization with talking points against a supposed Jewish lobby as well as against leftist ideologies and secularism.Batool, Fizza; Yilmaz, Ihsan & Shakil, Kainat. (2023). "Contest between leaders of the Ummah: Comparing civilizational populisms of PTI and TLP in Pakistan." Populism & Politics (P&P). European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). February 15, 2023. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. TLP is considered fascist by some analysts because of its engagement in Islamic extremism and militant terrorism.Radicalization in Pakistan: A Critical Perspective, Muhammad Shoaib Pervez, p.2, Routledge
Support base TLP finds its sympathizers mainly among the Sunnis of Barelvi affiliation, who make the majority of Pakistan's Muslim population, ranging from rural madrasa students to urban working professionals, such as in Karachi, where the city's leadership and members include lawyers, doctors, chartered accountants and bank managers.
In 2018, a Gallup Pakistan survey found out that 46% of TLP voters voted for PML-N during the 2013 Pakistani general election, few years before the foundation of TLP, while 11% of TLP voters used to vote for MQM and 7% for both PPP and PTI during the same period. Analysts thus note that PML-N has lost the most when it comes to its electoral base due to the rise of TLP, former PML-N voters citing Nawaz Sharif's recent stances on Kashmir and relations with India as the main reasons for their dissatisfaction.
Social media TLP, through both its leadership and its members or sympathizers, has a large presence on social media, and as of 2019 it had at least 17,200 active Twitter users.
Chronology of political agitation against the government
2015 foundation Tehreek-e-Labbaik was founded on 1 August 2015 by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, at the Nishtar Park in Karachi. Seventy-five founding members pledged allegiance to Khadim Hussain Rizvi. In 2017, The Tehreek-e-Labbaik allotted the crane as its election symbol.
2017 Khatm e Nabuwwat Bill
In October 2017, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz, or PML-N) government controversially changed the language in its 2017 elections bill. It amended a declaration where candidates for office were required to proclaimed their faith in the "absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophet Muhammad" (known as the "seal of the prophets" oath). by saying "I believe" (that he does), which replaced the words "I solemnly swear" (that the Prophet has that status). Labaik demanded that the government abandon the change and sack the law minister, claiming that the change weakened the affirmation and conceded ground to Ahmadis.
The TLP and its leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi strongly opposed the new language, and demanded the resignation of Pakistan's law minister Zahid Hamid, who had changed the law. It held a large protest against the amendment, stopping traffic at the Faizabad Interchange at first, which then led to further protests across the country. The party led a three-week sit-in protest that paralyzed the entire country including Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, activists attacked police and damaged property. At least six protesters were killed and 200 were injured when police unsuccessfully tried to disperse the sit-in, the protest spread nationwide, and the minister Zahid Hamid was forced to resign. The participants went home after the military guaranteed an agreement with them, "giving those responsible for inciting and using violence immunity from arrest; a major general even gave the protesters cash handouts."
2018 assassination attempt of Ahsan Iqbal In May 2018, Interior Minister and PML-N senior leader Ahsan Iqbal was shot and wounded at a political rally in his home constituency of Narowal, in an apparent assassination attempt. The attacker, later found to be linked with Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, was arrested from the spot. TLP criticised the attack and called for a judicial inquiry, insisting that its methods were peaceful and democratic.
2018 acquittal and release of Asia Bibi
Following the acquittal of Asia Bibi (formally, Asia Noreen), a Pakistani Christian who was charged with blasphemy and kept in solitary confinement for eight years until found innocent on 31 October 2018, TLP members held protests across Pakistan that included "blocking roads but not damaging the infrastructure". Muhammad Afzal Qadri, a TLP co-founder, also called for the death of the three Supreme Court justices involved in hearing Bibi's appeal, stating "The Chief Justice and two others deserve to be killed ... Either their security guards, their drivers, or their chefs should kill them." On 2 November 2018, the Government of Pakistan under the administration of Imran Khan and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik political party, which encouraged the protests against Asia Bibi, came into an agreement that barred Asia Bibi from leaving the country, in addition to releasing Tehreek-e-Labbaik protesters who were under arrest. The deal includes expediting a motion in the court to place Asia Noreen on Pakistan's no-fly list, known officially as the Exit Control List. Due to pressure from Tehreek-e-Labbaik, Pakistani authorities hadn't released Asia Noreen until the "Supreme Court makes a final review of its verdict" as "Ghulam Mustafa, the lawyer representing a provincial cleric in Punjab who had filed the initial blasphemy charges against Bibi, petitioned the Supreme Court requesting that the judges review her acquittal."
This agreement between the Government of Pakistan and TLP led to "allegations [that] the government was capitulating to extremists". Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry responded to these allegations, saying "We had two options: either to use force, and when you use force people can be killed. That is not something a state should do... We tried negotiations and (in) negotiations you take something and you leave something." Asia Noreen's lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook called the agreement between the Government of Pakistan and the Islamists "painful", stating that "They cannot even implement an order of the country's highest court". Feeling that his life was threatened, Mulook fled to Europe in order "to stay alive as I still have to fight the legal battle for Asia Bibi." British Pakistani Christian Association chairman Wilson Chowdhry stated that "I am not surprised that Imran Khan's regime has caved in to extremists". Jemima Goldsmith, an ex-wife of Imran Khan, similarly "said that Pakistan's government caved in to extremist demands to bar Asia Bibi from leaving the country", opining "Not the Naya Pakistan we'd hoped for. 3 days after a defiant & brave speech defending the judiciary, Pakistan's gov caves in to extremist demands to bar Asia Bibi from leaving Pak, after she was acquitted of blasphemy- effectively signing her death warrant."
On 7 November 2018, Asia Bibi was released from New Jail for Women in Multan, flown to PAF Base Nur Khan, from whence she then departed the country on a charter plane, to the Netherlands. Shahbaz Attari of TLP, upon hearing the news, said that TLP members would gather in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to try and prevent the departure of Asia Bibi to the Netherlands.
2018 arrest On 23 November 2018, after approval of Federal Cabinet, provincial police carried out an operation and arrested the chief of TLP Khadim Hussain Rizvi, along with some 50 members of his party to defunct the TLP's call for a public rally in Liaqat National Bagh planned for November 25, 2018, following which protests spread out and situation deteriorated. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry confirmed the arrest as a protective custody. Along with media blackout, TLP faced social media and websites bans during the crackdown. The TLP leaders Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Pir Afzal Qadri, Inayat Haq Shah, Farooqul Hassan were booked on charges of sedition and terrorism.
2021 protests
The arrest of TLP leader Saad Rizvi in mid-April 2021 for inciting violence led to demonstrations by his supporters and the deaths of at least four police constables, the abduction of eleven other police personnel and the reported torture of a police deputy superintendent in Lahore.
On 12 April 2021, Khadim Hussain Rizvi's son, Saad Hussain Rizvi was arrested by police while he was coming back from a funeral prayer prior to a planned protest by the party on 20 April 2021. The planned protest's motive was to pressure the Government of Pakistan to deport the French ambassador in Pakistan over the controversy of cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Over the three day protest, the French embassy asked its citizens to temporarily leave the country. The government had arrested Rizvi in Lahore and charged him under Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 (ATA), which further angered protesters, causing widespread unrest.
On 14 April 2021, the party was banned, which came after violent protests that caused the deaths of two policemen and left 340 injured, in retaliation to the arrest of the new ameer. The interior minister stated that the Punjab government had requested for the ban and the summary after being approved from the federal cabinet resulted in the ban on TLP under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. Tehreek-e-Labbaik was banned by the Government of Pakistan on April 15, 2021.
During protests on 18 April 2021 outside the TLP office in Saddar area of Lahore near Multan Road, a police team tried removing the members, leading to clashes and eleven police officers being injured. Protesters also attacked the police station in Nawan Kot, taking 12 policemen (in some reports said to be 11) as hostages and torturing them. They were released on the next day after talks with the Government of Punjab. The protesters also stole an oil tanker. Two of the protesters were killed and 50 were injured during the violence.