ISLAMABAD: Asserting that the writ of the state cannot be challenged, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday said the situation in the country has returned to normal after days of protests launched by the now-proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
Earlier, the protestors had sought the release of Saad Rizvi, the chief of the hardline religious group, and denounced the publication of blasphemous caricatures in France. The violent demonstrations had left two police officers dead and at least 340 wounded. Rizvi was later charged with instigating murder.
While speaking to the media in Rawalpindi after visiting injured police officers at District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Chaudhry said that he congratulated the ministries of interior and religious affairs and provincial governments for jointly reigning on the protestors.
“It was once again established that the writ of the state cannot be challenged,” he said.
Pakistan is the world’s fifth-biggest country [by population] and nuclear power, Chaudhry said, questioning how anyone can undermine it and its government.
On Thursday, the government had outlawed the hardline group under anti-terrorism provisions. “We don’t want to be known as an extremist nation at the international level,” Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed had told reporters.
On Saturday, Chaudhry said proscribing the party was “purely” an internal decision and there was no foreign pressure on the government to do so.
The government handled the protestors in the best possible manner and the nationwide situation has now normalised.
Regretting the language employed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan to threaten Punjab chief secretary and Lahore commissioner and deputy commissioner, the minister said the government has decided to book the politician under provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).
“Nobody can be allowed to threaten the state institutions and civil servants.”
The minister said people threatening the government meet a fate same as of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain. “If some persons blackmail institutions, he said, they will have to face action.”
“Pakistan’s state is not a weak state at all and no one should make the mistake of misunderstanding this,” he said, adding that Pakistan also has the “biggest defence system and army” in the Muslim world.
“So those who wanted to undermine Pakistan should remove that misunderstanding of theirs,” he said.
He said that in a “functional democracy”, there are different points of view and they are listened to but no one can attempts to blackmail the government or thinks he can exert power over it.
“The situation in all of Pakistan at this time has become normal,” said Chaudhry and further expressed his regret for Friday’s social media ban for three-four hours, saying it was “necessary”.
He alleged that prior investigations on sectarian riots and organisations had found the involvement of the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, so “here too there are parties who are used and many times they don’t even know whose hands they are playing into.”
When asked about the future of TLP, Chaudhry said the party has finished. While the minister predicted the fate of the group in no uncertain terms, TLP is backed by a majority Sunni sect with a following of tens of thousands that will likely make it difficult to enforce any ban.
Domestic groups in Pakistan have a history of popping up with different names after being outlawed.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood also spoke to the media about the TLP in Lahore on Saturday.
Speaking about the protests by the group, he said police officers were tortured and the private property was damaged.
He opined that the matter could have been resolved through negotiations. He said more than 600 police personnel were injured in the protests.
Last year, the TLP group had ended a similar protest only after the government had signed a deal agreeing to endorse a boycott of French products and making a move in parliament to expel the French ambassador.
