Late Friday night, Dec 1, the Lahore faction of the Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) finally decided to call off their protest. For a week, this faction led by Ashraf Asif Jalali had been camped near Charing Cross opposite Punjab Assembly in Lahore with their own list of demands.
Jalali’s camp had insisted that Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah be sacked for what they believed were remarks he made about apostatized-under-law Ahmadis. He also wanted the re-Islamization of the textbooks that the Lahore government had just detoxed of hate material.
“We had to settle the punishment for (Punjab Law Minister) Rana Sanaullah,” Jalali said after reaching the agreement with the government of Punjab. “Also, we have been assured regarding the monitoring of the activities of [Ahmadis], the ban on the spread of their blasphemous literature.”
Ashraf Jalali
Jalali also claimed that the Punjab government has agreed to reconsider its action against posters targeting the Ahmadiyya community, and the ban on loudspeakers. He added that his faction has handed over the fate of Law Minister Sanaullah to Pir of Sial Sharif Khawaja Hameeduddin, whose help Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had sought to eventually pacify the protesters in Lahore. However, if Pir Sialvi was not satisfied with the law minister’s clarification, he would have to go.
The Jalali-led TLYR faction’s agreement came five days after the group led by Khadim Hussain Rizvi had finalised its own six-point agreement with the government following the Faizabad Interchange sit-in. Both Rizvi and Jalali have disowned each other’s protest.
“To be honest, I didn’t even know there was a protest in Lahore. Probably because it was not only needless but counterproductive,” Rizvi said after being asked about the agreement in Lahore. Rizvi claims he was elected the leader by the TLYR Shura, insisting that Jalali is merely trying to “steal his thunder.”
Jalali, however, maintains that he was the original TLYR chief, with the backing of ‘hundreds of thousands’, insisting that Rizvi had actually ‘begged him’ to take up the position considering his influence.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi, meanwhile, maintains that he couldn't care less. "Why would I want any unity with someone who refused to acknowledge our struggle for the agreement with the state institutions?" he says
Before Rizvi’s TLYR camped at the Faizabad Interchange, Jalali’s faction had actually completed 10 days of their own protest in the capital. Between October 24 to November 3, Jalali’s faction staged their protest, with their list of demands at D-Chowk in Islamabad.
On November 3, they reached an agreement with PML-N leaders Saad Rafique and Talal Chaudhry, along with Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Capt (retd) Mushtaq Ahmed. The written agreement said that those responsible for amendments in the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat clause of the Election Reforms Bill, would be brought forward by November 23.
After no one was earmarked as guilty over the next 20 days, and with punishment for Sanaullah high on their list of demands, Jalali’s TLYR decided to merge both causes and camped outside the Punjab Assembly. Sources within both TLYR camps confirm that there hasn’t been any communication between the two for months. The rift became ‘unbridgeable’, according to a Barelvi cleric privy to both camps, once Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan, a week before the Election Reforms Bill was passed. “Maulana Ashraf Jalali has been completely oblivious to the TLP. Even when Liaqat Ali Khan contested the NA-120 by-election independently, with TLP backing, Jalali had no say in it,” he said.
After TLP was registered under Khadim Rizvi, those affiliated with the Tehreek Labbaik movement, started following his lead. Once the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat issue was taken up, Rizvi became the face of the Tehrik, further making Jalali a peripheral figure, prompting the latter to underscore his own separate faction.
Noises from both camps affirm that the TLYR split is all but official.
However, Ashraf Asif Jalali, who also heads Tehreek Sirat-e-Mustaqeem—one of the groups that joined hands with Rizvi when TLYR was founded on August 1, 2015—says that it has been more than just a few months that the two have gone on separate paths. “We initially joined hands because we had the same goal of establishing Sharia law, protecting Namoos-e-Risalat, and ensuring that blasphemers of all kith and kin are penalised,” Jalali says. “But now that they have sold the martyrs of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat in Islamabad, forgiving Zahid Hamid and the entire Parliament that was responsible for the attack on Islam, there is no chance for any unity between us,” he adds.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi, meanwhile, maintains that he couldn’t care less. “Why would I want any unity with someone who refused to acknowledge our struggle for the agreement with the state institutions?” he says. “His main issue is that the state recognizes us and not them. I have no cure for anyone who wants to fight for personal credit amidst such a holy cause.”
