Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (; TLP) is a far-right Islamic extremist political party in Pakistan. The party was founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi in August 2015. It was the fifth largest party in Pakistan at the time of the 2018 Pakistani general election, and secured over 2.2 million votes. It failed to win any seat in the National Assembly or the Punjab Assembly, but won three seats in the Sindh Assembly.
Tehreek-e-Labbaik is known for its violent protests against any changes to the blasphemy law in Pakistan, the killing of police, and calls for deaths of Supreme Court justices. It demands that Sharia be established as the Islamic fundamental law in Pakistan, through a gradual legal and political process. However, the TLP has repeatedly resorted to violent protests and mobs used to blackmail and coerce the government into agreeing to their demands.
Most of the party's members belong to the Barelvi movement. Despite being banned, TLP was allowed to contest the elections and secured third place in Karachi by-elections. The party organized the 2021 Pakistani protests.
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan has been called "the political wing" of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR), a religiopolitical group that Khadim Hussain Rizvi also founded and led.
Party profile
Ideology
TLP has been characterized as a far-right Islamist populist party, its civilizational populism being centered around the concept of Nizam-e-Mustafa, the idea of establishing a hard-line Sharia-driven Islamic state, catering to the country's Sunni majority population in general and to the Barelvis in particular while targeting minorities such as the Ahmadiyya, criticizing the elite for abandoning Sharia and being overall critical of Western civilization with talking points against a supposed Jewish lobby as well as against leftist ideologies and secularism.
Support base
TLP finds its sympathizers mainly among the Sunnis of Barelvi affiliation, who make the majority of Pakistan's Muslim population, ranging from rural madrasa students to urban working professionals, such as in Karachi, where the city's leadership and members include lawyers, doctors, chartered accountants and bank managers.
In 2018, a Gallup Pakistan survey found out that 46% of TLP voters voted for PML-N during the 2013 Pakistani general election, few years before the foundation of TLP, while 11% of TLP voters used to vote for MQM and 7% for both PPP and PTI during the same period. Analysts thus note that PML-N has lost the most when it comes to its electoral base due to the rise of TLP, former PML-N voters citing Nawaz Sharif's recent stances on Kashmir and relations with India as the main reasons for their dissatisfaction.
Social media
TLP, through both its leadership and its members or sympathizers, has a large presence on social media, and as of 2019 it had at least 17,200 active Twitter users. TLP is also present on Facebook and YouTube.
Chronology of political agitation against the government
2015 foundation
Tehreek-e-Labbaik was founded on 1 August 2015 by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, at the Nishtar Park in Karachi. Seventy-five founding members pledged allegiance to Khadim Hussain Rizvi. In 2017, The Tehreek-e-Labbaik allotted the crane as its election symbol.
2017 Khatm e Nabuwwat Bill
In October 2017, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz, or PML-N) government controversially changed the language in its 2017 elections bill. It amended a declaration where candidates for office were required to proclaimed their faith in the “absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophet Muhammad” (known as the “seal of the prophets” oath). by saying “I believe” (that he does), which replaced the words “I solemnly swear” (that the Prophet has that status). Labaik demanded that the government abandon the change and sack the law minister, claiming that the change weakened the affirmation and conceded ground to Ahmadis.