Formed in: May 2017

The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the political wing of Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi-led Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLYRAP), is a new addition to the country's political arena.

Top leadership

• Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi
• Pir Afzal Qadri

Key concerns

• Barelviism
• Blasphemy laws
• Sharia law

2018 elections

This is going to be TLP's first national election. Though it was publically launched in June 2017, the TLP was formed and registered with the ECP in May 2016. In 2017, a candidate backed by the TYLRAP contested in the NA-120 by-poll. It also took part in the by-polls of NA-4 (Peshawar), NA-154 (Lodhran) and PP-20 (Chakwal). Not even a single candidate of the newly formed party could win the elections.

In 2018, the party has fielded candidates from 175 NA seats — out of these, 122 seats are from Punjab, 29 from Sindh, 16 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, five from Balochistan and three from Islamabad.

Major political plays

• Before the hanging of Salman Taseer's killer Mumtaz Qadri, firebrand cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi had founded a platform to call for his release. Subsequently, prominent religious leaders joined Rizvi to establish a religious party which was named Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA). Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali was made the chairman of the party, whereas Rizvi and Pir Afzal Qadri were declared patron-in-chief and patron of the party, respectively. It was the TLYRA that had organised the chehlum of Mumtaz Qadri and held the four-day-long sit-in to protest at Islamabad's D-chowk in 2016 to protest his hanging.

• In 2017, when Rizvi approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to get TYLRA, registered, the commission raised objections over the name of the party. After consultations, Rizvi and other leaders decided to establish a political wing of the TLYRA, named it TLP, and get it registered with the ECP as a political party.

• In 2017, a TLP-backed candidate contested in the by-poll for NA-120, which is considered a PML-N stronghold. It also took part in the by-polls of NA-4 (Peshawar), NA-154 (Lodhran) and PP-20 (Chakwal). The ECP had allotted the election symbol of 'crane' to TLP.

• Though not a single candidate of the newly-formed party could win the by-elections, the party emerged as a rising political power.

• The party also displayed its might in the second half of 2017, when it locked the Faizabad interchange, demanding the resignation of a federal minister. The agitators said a sworn oath affirming a politician's belief in the finality of Prophethood (Khatm-i-Nabuwwat) was deliberately modified as part of a larger conspiracy during the passage of the Elections Act, 2017.The sit-in lasted 20 days and was called off when the government — after the intervention of the army, following a failed police operation — accepted several demands of the protesters. During the sit-in, TLP also showed its strength across the country where demonstrations were held to express solidarity with the protesters at Faizabad interchange.

Controversy

• TLP's 2017 sit-in culminated after the government admitted all major demands of the protesters. The deal was brokered by the army, which also played the role of the guarantor. This sparked a controversy and the judiciary took notice of the development. The move was largely seen as the army getting ahead of its Constitutional role.