LAHORE: As 90-day detention of Hafiz Saad Rizvi, leader of proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was set to end on Saturday, the Punjab government issued a fresh notification of his preventive detention for another 90 days.

Rizvi was detained on April 12, 2021 under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960 for 30 days with two extensions of the same days.

This time, the deputy commissioner of Lahore invoked his powers under Section 11 EEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and issued the order for detention of Rizvi for 90 days. On the other hand, the Supreme Court (Lahore registry) is set to hear on Monday a petition challenging the detention of Rizvi.

Saad Rizvi is the son of the late Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the founder of the TLP.

His paternal uncle Ameer Hussain had filed the petition, challenging the previous detention order of his nephew. He also assailed an order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that dismissed his petition against the detention.

On Saturday, a large number of Rizvi’s supporters and followers gathered outside the Central Jail, Kot Lakhpat to welcome their leader as a provincial review board, on July 2, had ordered the government to release him if not required in any other case. However, they had to go back disappointed as the government extended detention period for Rizvi and he was not released.

The board, comprising three judges of the LHC, had dismissed a reference filed by the government seeking an extension in Rizvi’s detention. It not only turned down the request of the government but also found it mala fide and contradiction in its stance on the TLP.

“The detenue is under the custody of police/security agencies for last two months and 20 days but even then, his arrest has not been shown in any of the criminal cases registered against him, which shows mala fide of the police/security agencies,” the board had observed in its order. It further observed that except Rizvi, no other person nominated in the FIRs had been arrested or detained by the government.

The review board also observed that in the recent past, many political parties of the country like Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, PML-N, PPP, and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf itself had taken out rallies against the sitting governments but neither the said parties were banned nor were their heads detained.

The government’s lawyer and officials had no answer to the board’s observation.

“They were again asked that in past leadership of and members of present ruling party, ie PTI, also took out processions throughout Pakistan, including province of Punjab and gave dharna in Islamabad for about 120 days and is there any order of detention of the leadership of the said party under section 3 of the ordinance supra but they were again unable to produce any such order before the board,” said the decision.

The detention of Rizvi had come after his organisation (TLP) staged sit-ins across the country demanding the government to expel the ambassador of France in the wake of blasphemous cartoons. The protesters had turned violent.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2021