Saad Rizvi’s birthday: When will the TLP chief be released from jail?

The son of late religious scholar Syed Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Saad Rizvi is celebrating his 27th birthday today. The incumbent chairman of the banned proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was showered with birthday wishes by his followers on Twitter.

Saad Rizvi is currently in jail 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.

Who is Saad Rizvi?

Saad Rizvi, Allama Rizvi’s 27-year-old son, was chosen to lead the party by its 18-member shura. He has been active in the party for the past few years, serving as its deputy secretary-general.

He used to stay in touch with reporters and made the party presence felt on social media. According to his friend Salman, Saad is a student of Darja-e-Aaliya of Dars-e-Nizami. He is studying at his father’s Abuzar Ghaffari seminary.

Saad knew that the microblogging site was a very important platform and believed that the party should have a presence on it because the mainstream media wasn’t giving them coverage.

Saad is popular among young party workers and also worked as a bridge between them and Allama Rizvi. The old party hands also think that Saad has leadership qualities which is one of the reasons the shura appointed him leader.

Why was Saad Rizvi arrested?

TLP chief Saad Hussain Rizvi was detained as a “pre-emptive measure” ahead of the party’s April 20 deadline to the government. The deadline pertains to the party’s demands from last year.

In October, a history teacher who had shown blasphemous sketches of Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) in class was decapitated and his assailant shot dead by French police as they tried to arrest him.

Following the killing, French President Emmanuel Macron criticised Islamists and vowed not to “give up cartoons” depicting Prophet Muhammad.

The TLP had put forth four demands: the expulsion of the French ambassador over President Emmanuel Macron’s explicit backing of blasphemous cartoons, the release of party chief Saad Rizvi, the removal of the ban on the party and the release of activists arrested as well as the FIRs against them to be revoked.

Court proceedings

On September 8, Justice Farooq Haider of the Lahore High Court sent the file of a petition against the detention of Hafiz Saad Rizvi, leader of proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), to the chief justice for a decision whether the case needed to be heard by a single or a division bench.

The petitioner’s counsel said the provincial government, with mala fide intention, extended the detention of Mr Rizvi under section 11 EEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 for another 90 days.

He said the matters relating to the anti-terrorism law were heard by division benches. The judge sent the file to the chief justice and adjourned further hearing of the petition till Sept 9.

Violence, not a solution

Meanwhile, Pakistan is looking to use its soft image as a diplomatic instrument for regional economic and political advantage, but the presence of radical groups on its soil makes this task complicated. Allowing an ambitious religious group to halt normalcy in the federal capital has hurt the national image most.

Extremism is the biggest enemy of the nation, which is not only weakening the already deteriorating governance system in the country but also undermining national dignity and Pakistan’s global image.