TLP leader Saad Hussain Rizvi released

TLP leader Saad Hussain Rizvi has been released from Kot Lakhpat jail on Tuesday.

He is expected to address his supporters at Chowk Yatimkhana.

His release came hours before a National Assembly session was scheduled to take place to vote on the expulsion of the French ambassador — one of the key demands of the party.

The vote is in line with the agreement reached between the TLP and the government last year to involve parliament in order to decide the matter in three months.

Last week, Saad Rizvi, in a video message, had asked TLP workers to be ready to launch the long march if government failed to meet the deadline. The move had prompted the government to arrest him on April 12.

Police had swooped on Rizvi at around 2pm on Wahdat Road in Lahore where he had gone to attend a funeral. Outraged, the TLP had issued a call for countrywide protests.

The next day, police registered an FIR against the TLP chief under sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Within the next few hours, protesters took to the streets in Lahore and blocked the Grand Trunk Road on a number of points.