Bulletins 1200 27th December 2017

Year 2017 was different for the country’s political climate which has previously been polarized between the civil and the military leaders.

The year saw a surprise emergence of a religious political party, making inroads into the mainstream politics after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government gave in to its demands and sent its federal law minister packing.

After Panama Papers case, the resurgence of politico-religious party belonging to Barelvi sect, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA), gave the government hard time until the government had to show its law minister the door to defuse mounting pressure.

Arising from a protest movement against execution of convicted Mumtaz Qadri, TLYRA gained momentum as a new party in the political sphere of country in late 2017 after holding a three-week-long protest in Islamabad, paralyzing the normal life in the federal capital.

Prior to the sit-in in Islamabad, the party had also fielded its candidate Azhar Rizvi from Lahore’s NA-120 constituency in by-election held on Sept 17 for a National Assembly seat, which fell vacant after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ouster.