TLP MPA, leaders removed from Fourth Schedule

KARACHI: Following the federal government’s decision of revoking the proscribed status of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the Sindh government has removed the names of TLP’s MPA Mufti Mohammad Qasim Fakhri from Karachi and other leaders of the party on Thursday from the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

A delegation led by former chairman Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Mufti Muneeb met Sindh Home Secretary Qazi Shahid Parvez and requested him to remove the names of leaders and workers of TLP and other Barelvi groups in the province from the Fourth Schedule.

Sources privy to the development told The News that immediately after the meeting, the TLP leaders’ names were removed from the list.

Prominent among those whose names were removed from the list included TLP Karachi MPA Mufti Mohammad Qasim Fakhri, the group leaders Ghulam Ghous Baghdadi, Mufti Abid Mubarak, Shakeel Patni and Syed Kashif Shah Rashidi.

Sources in the Home Department Sindh said that former home secretary Usman Chachar, with the coordination of the counter terrorism department and other intelligence institutions, had placed the names of dozens of the TLP workers in the Fourth Schedule list for their involvement in violent activities. It is pertinent to mention that the Fourth Schedule is a list of “proscribed” individuals who are suspected of terrorism and/or sectarianismunder Section 11EE of the ATA 1997, which states that whenever the government receives information that an individual is associated with an organisation, they are kept under observation. The government may recommend the person’s name for the Fourth Schedule.