A copy of the handwritten agreement with signatures of Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noorul Qadri and Interior Minister Ijaz Shah was released by the TLP.
According to the agreement, the government will expel the French ambassador within three months after seeking approval from the parliament. The government has also agreed not to appoint Pakistan’s ambassador to France. All arrested workers of the TLP will be released by the government and it will not lodge any case against the TLP leaders or workers, the agreement reads.
A notification from the interior ministry ordered release of all those arrested from Punjab in the past few days.
Earlier, several policemen including an SHO were injured in clashes with the TLP workers on Sunday. After the agreement, the TLP workers who attacked the cops will be given a clean chit. The government’s act of signing an agreement with the violent protestors has raised eyebrows with activists saying that the move will give legitimacy to the extremist group.
In 2017, a similar agreement was signed between the then government of PMLN and TLP which had blocked the capital as protest against a ‘clerical error’ that removed the finality of Prophethood oath from the Election Bill.