Pakistan govt to allow outlawed Islamist group to contest elections

Islamabad [Pakistan], November 3 : After several weeks of clashes with banned Islamist group, the Pakistan government is likely to allow outlawed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) to contest polls, local media reported.
This decision comes less than a week after the banned TLP was classified as "a militant banned organisation".
The TLP has been allowed to contest the next general elections, and has been assured that the government will lift the ban on the group, Pakistani Urdu news network Samaa TV reported. The report also said that a steering committee will execute the agreement.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has termed the agreement between the government and a proscribed Muslim outfit as a "surrender by the state" and asked the establishment to make the deal public, a media report said.
After weeks of protests by the outlawed group, the government reached an agreement with the group recently. The TLP has been urging the government to release its chief Saad Rizvi.
The demand for making the government-TLP deal public came from three different PPP senators through their separate statements a day after the members of the negotiating team from the government side announced that they had reached an 'agreement' with the TLP in order to end the nearly two-week-long impasse, Dawn newspaper reported.
However, no further details were divulged.
Questioning the logic behind keeping the deal a secret, the PPP leaders have stated that the people of Pakistan and their elected representatives have every right to know the details.
The opposition party asked to reveal the contents of the agreement that had been signed in the "darkness of night".