By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government is considering banning the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party after its supporters carried out a series of coordinated and pre-planned attacks on public properties and military installations earlier this month, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday.
“There is a consideration to ban PTI. The PTI has attacked the very foundation of the state, which is unprecedented and cannot be tolerated,” Minister Asif told reporters in Islamabad.
“Those who attacked the house of the Corps Commander, attacked the GHQ [army headquarters in Rawalpindi], the Gujranwala cantonment, and the air base in Mianwali… these were coordinated attacks.”
Khan’s arrest on May 9 on land corruption charges sparked deadly protests across the country, with army establishments being attacked and state buildings set ablaze. Troops were deployed to contain the violence. Thousands of supporters of the popular opposition politician, including senior PTI leaders, have been arrested.
Khan, who vehemently denied the corruption charges, was subsequently released on bail as ordered by the court.
He, though, found himself embroiled in a confrontation with the otherwise currently a politically distant military.
“We have gathered substantial evidence, and PTI supporters have also admitted to receiving multiple briefings on what they were supposed to do if Khan was arrested,” Asif said.
“In light of the incidents on May 9 and the planned actions undertaken by his party against our armed forces, we are currently assessing the situation. These attacks were not spontaneous.”
“While we have not made a final decision, we are considering the possibility of imposing a ban on this party.”
Asif, however, said the matter will be referred to the Parliament for approval if the government finally decides to ban the former ruling party.
The minister said the former premier considered the army as his adversary. “His (Khan’s) entire politics was done in the lap of the army and today he has suddenly decided to stand against it.”
Minister Asif claimed that Khan’s own leaders who had quit the party were saying the same thing. “Whatever I am saying is being said by all the people leaving PTI,” he said. “They have said that everything happened with planning. In fact, they were facilitated.”
He also criticised Khan for not condemning the attacks on the military facilities.
“Till now, he (Imran Khan) has not condemned [the violence] in clear words. He says that he did not know, he was [in custody]. He had his phone […] he repeated that this reaction was expected and will happen again if he is arrested.”
A PTI senior member Barrister Ali Zafar, however, said the party would challenge the ban in the court as a political party cannot be banned.
He told the media that when a ban was imposed on the Jamaat-i-Islami in the 1960s, it was set aside by then-chief justice Alvin Robert Cornelius.
“Efforts were made to put a ban on Jamaat-i-Islami long ago. The SC had said that you cannot ban a political party and it is everyone’s right to form a political party,” Zafar said.
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