Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said on Thursday that the leader of Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan was the one who demanded the French embassy be closed down in their talks.

Saad Rizvi, who has been detained since April 12, told Rasheed when he met him to negotiate a way out of the deadlock, that he wanted the matter to be brought to the National Assembly and the French embassy shut.

This negates what Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman said in his press conference on Tuesday when he called TLP's demands to shut the embassy down as "lies".

Mufti Muneeb played an instrumental role in helping the government reach a deal with the TLP though details of that agreement have not been made public.

Rasheed addressed this in his talk with the media saying he was firm on what he said and he knew it was "[contrary to what] one person — who is very respectable and is a major religious figure from Karachi said" a reference to Mufti Muneeb.

While he said he signed a document to this effect with Rizvi, he said he was not going to answer any more questions as two federal ministers were instructed by the prime minsiter to talk on the issue.

Rizvi and other TLP leaders have publically called for the expulsion of the French ambassador, a condition that the PTI-led government initally agreed to bring to parliament but then reneged on, leading to TLP protests.