The Sindh government has invoked the 1960 Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law to detain 156 leaders and workers of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) for 30 days.

The MPO was promulgated by the governor of the then West Pakistan on Dec 2, 1960, during the martial law of Gen Ayub Khan. Since then this controversial law has regularly been used and misused by the successive governments.

According to police officials and documents obtained by Dawn on Sunday, the detainees were held after accusing them that they were in the 'habit' of creating an adverse law and order situation by blocking main roads and causing immense inconveniences to the citizens.

Most of them were arrested on Friday night over staging protest sit-ins in Karachi and other parts of Sindh soon after the arrest of their leader, Khadim Hussain Rizvi in Lahore.

Sindh government has issued orders to this effect on the request of police authorities.

The officials said that Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Syed Kaleem Imam on Saturday had written a letter to Sindh Home Secretary Abdul Kabir Kazi, requesting him to issue detention orders under Section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order, 1960.

Two deputy inspector generals (DIGs) of Karachi’s West and East Zone and four DIGs of Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad, and Mirpurkhas, respectively, had submitted their reports to the Sindh IGP, suggesting that TLP workers be detained under the relevant law to avoid any mishap and untoward incident.

A senior police official told Dawn that the home secretary had then issued orders for the detention of leaders and activists of the TLP, numbering a total of 156, of which most were apprehended from Karachi.

According to the detention orders issued by the home secretary: “The members of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) are in the habit to harass the general public, instigating mobs against honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan in the judgement of Aasia Bibi case and challenging the writ of the State by blocking the public thoroughfares, damaging the public property and creating panic among the masses.”

The orders continue to state: "They will create [an adverse] law and order situation and cause harassment amongst the general public, which will become [a] potential danger to public peace.”

Therefore, under Section 3 (1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 "the held workers of the religious party shall be detained for a period of thirty days from the date of their arrest".

Their custody shall be placed under the care of the superintendent of the Central Prison in Karachi. The detained shall be at liberty "to make a representation to the provincial government against this order", the orders further state.

The official added that apart from the detention of 156 leaders and workers of the TLP under MPO, 44 others have been arrested under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, as they had allegedly resorted to violence near the Quaid's mausoleum on Friday night.

Among the 44 TLP members arrested under terror charges, three of them were office-bearers of the party in Sindh.