Punjabi Protestors Appeased in Pakistan
An agreement between the Punjab government and protesters in Lahore ended the 7 day sit-in on Mall Road, one of the city’s primary streets. This agreement arrived late on Friday, December 1, when the state government was able to negotiate that the protesters drop their demand that the Punjab Law Minister, Rana Sanaullah, resign. Asif Jalali, a leader in the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) Islamist political party, announced the end of the protest to his followers after these talks. Jalali thanked the protesters for participating in the week-long sit-in and announced to them the nature of the agreement. The agreement consists of 4 parts:
- The Raja Zafarul Haq committee shares their findings with the country before December 20
- The formation of a committee to review loudspeakers on mosques in Punjab
- Immediate implementation of all points of the agreement between the federal government and Tehreek-e-Labbaik
- Review of the religious curriculum in the state
However, the protesters are not completely satisfied. Jalali has vowed that Tehreek-e-Labbaik would return to the streets in a month, should the Punjab government not follow through with the agreement that was signed.
These protests in Lahore began in response to a report detailing the suppression of a Tehreek-e-Labbaik sit-in in the Faizabad neighborhood of Islamabad. Jalali claimed that the government “‘dumped’ the bodies of the party's supporters ‘killed’ in the Islamabad operation.”
Those protests started when an oath that all public office holders are required to make, declaring the the Prophet Mohammed was the final prophet in the Abrahamic tradition, was amended to a declaration in the Elections Act 2017. The Elections Act were also controversial for allowing Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister of Pakistan who was disqualified from holding public office, to return as the head of the largest Pakistani political party.
The Raja Zafarul Haq committee is currently investigating the change, which those involved have defended as a mere clerical error that has already been fixed.