Political unrest inching toward civil warIslamabad, the national capital of Pakistan, was sieged by an Islamic militant organisation twice within a span of six months, bringing the civilian government to its knees. The cadres of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) created mayhem across the country, blocking roads leading to Islamabad and Rawalpindi, which is Pakistani Army’s Headquarter, and leaving at least four dead and many injured.
The militant organisation that was once raised and supported by Pakistan’s Army to weaken Nawaz Sharif government has now brought the country on a verge of civil war. The radical Islamist outfit TLP has been protesting for a ban of French goods and expulsion of French Ambassador over French President Emmanuel Macron’s critical comments on Islam. In November 2020 too, the TLP had clashed with police and blocked the crucial roads to Islamabad. The TLP members had managed to penetrate security walls to entre Islamabad and later stage a sit-in protest.
The TLP is a hardliner Sunni party, which was founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi in 2015. It works to protect honour of Prophet Muhammad and Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Pakistan’s Army had managed to weaken the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by using the radical TLP to scoop out the conservative’s voter base of PML-N. However, Rizvi later turned against the very Army that brought him to existence. However, in late 2020, he was declared dead of Covid-19 just two days after he challenged the Army Chief QamarJavedBajwa.
The TLP’s fresh agitations demanding boycott of France led Pakistan authorities to arrest its new leader Saad Rizvi. It caused the agitations to intensified, with thousands of TLP cadres holding many cities to ransom. Pakistan’s reputed and credible newspaper Dawn has taken a dig at the Imran Khan-led PTI government saying it seemed to be disappeared when radical zealots blocked highways, railroads that connected main cities. “In other words, most were clueless about who was in charge of what. This particular governance ailment is now acquiring an air of quasi-deliberate permanence within the federal government. It is cause for deep concern,” it said.
Pakistan’s Army has a big role to play in the current as well as historic instability in the country, which has led it to become a failed state. It ruled the country more than the half of its history, by subverting constitutions made by civilian governments and killing politically elected leaders.
The rise of the TLP was clandestinely backed by the Pakistan’s Army. It refused to take action against the militant organisation despite civilian government requesting its help in 2017. The TLP had continued with its protest over a clerical error in Khatm-i-Nabuwwat oath even after the Supreme Court and the other religious outfits asked it to stop.
Despite the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi seeking military intervention to clear TLP protestors from Islamabad, Bajwa did not act saying the institution of the army "can't be compromised for little gains". Later, the TLP was fund to be a part of the conspiracy to kill Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal.
Now, Imran Khan government has banned the TLP terming it a terrorist organisation. “The federal government has reasonable grounds to believe that Tehreek-e-Labbaik is engaged in terrorism, [has] acted in a manner prejudicial to the peace and security of the country, involved in creating anarchy in the country by intimidating the public,” says the government notification, which indicated at Pakistan was close to civil war-like situation.A research by the Australia National University showed the TLP cadres used 17,000 Twitter accounts to spread hate in the past two years.Researcher Rizvan Saeed said there was waves of such account openings whenever the TLP protested against issues related to blasphemy.
Besides the covert support of Army, the TLP is gaining popularity among the masses in Pakistan, and it performed well in the 2018 elections. Former Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani said the TLP had become a threat to Pakistan's stability. And such instability creates favourable situation for military takeover. London-based historian Farzana Shaikh called Pakistan a “security state”, where the army has a country rather than a country having an army. The ongoing TLP protests that has paralysed large parts of Pakistan. Thus, sensing a potential uprising, France to ask it citizens to leave Pakistan.
