Pakistan: Islamabad to ban Imran’s PTI for “anti-state” activities
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Pakistan Government on Monday announced the imposition of a ban on jailed former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi’s political outfit, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), for its alleged “anti-state” activities.
Sensing that, despite the months-long crackdown, PTI remains defiant and the largest political outfit in the country and the National Assembly, the Sharifs-led ruling clique, sponsored by the omnipresent Pakistan Army, has taken this step, the media reported.
Imran Khan is battling around 150 court cases filed by his political enemies and has been in jail since May 2023.
The latest move to ban his party was taken soon after the government authorized the infamous ISI to keep tabs on anyone’s communications in the country.
According to reports, Islamabad has now announced to ban the PTI on the charge of its “anti-state” activities, including “attempts to sabotage the IMF’s loans” to the cash-strapped country.
Blaming Imran’s regime for the country’s financial mess is how the Sharief regime is trying to cover up its own role in Pakistan’s economic meltdown.
“The government has decided that the federal government will move a case to ban the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf),” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters in Islamabad.
The case would be taken to the Supreme Court, he added.
There is clear evidence to impose restrictions on the PTI and the government would initiate proceedings against the party, Tarar said.
Former cricket superstar, Imran Khan, 71, had formed the PTI in 1996, which came to power in 2018. He served as the Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics.
Although the government banned him from running in the February 2024 election to the National Assembly because of a graft conviction, independent candidates loyal to PTI secured more seats than any other party. But they were kept away from power by the anti-Imran alliance supported by the army.
Reacting to the announcement banning the PTI, its spokesman Raoof Hasan said the party “will not tolerate” it. “PTI has become stronger than before. We will face it.”
In a landmark ruling on Friday last, the Supreme Court granted the PTI more parliamentary seats, after party members were forced to run as independents in the February 8 election.
Khan’s conviction for illegal marriage — which carried a seven-year sentence — was then overturned by an Islamabad court on Saturday but he remains jailed over other cases.
A UN panel of experts found this month that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.
