DAWN
Pakistan’s Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, announced on Monday that the government had decided to ban Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party.
This decision follows recent relief granted to PTI by the Supreme Court in the reserved seats case and to the party chief in the Iddat case. As a result of the Supreme Court’s judgment, PTI is poised to emerge as the single largest party in the National Assembly, while the ruling coalition appears set to lose its two-thirds majority.
Speaking during a press conference in Islamabad, Tarar stated that the country cannot progress with PTI’s existence. “In view of the foreign funding case, the May 9 riots, the cipher episode, and the resolution passed in the US, we believe that there is very credible evidence to have the PTI banned,” he said.
Tarar cited several issues, including the foreign funding case, the May 9 riots, and the manipulation of the cipher saga, in which former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed—who authored the cipher—clarified that there was “no threat.” Despite this, PTI continued to claim that the country was in danger. “You tried to damage the country’s diplomatic relations for the sake of your political interests and went on to get a resolution passed against Pakistan in the US,” he added.
The information minister also revealed that the government would submit a review petition before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against its verdict last week, which declared that PTI would be eligible for reserved seats for women and minorities. He noted that an impression was created that the party was given relief without asking for it.
“However, Tehreek-i-Insaf was not a party in the case, the members in question did not claim to be PTI candidates, and all of them submitted Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) affidavits and joined the party,” he said.
According to the SIC’s manifesto, a non-Muslim cannot become a member of the party. “This was the reason why they could not get minorities’ seats,” he concluded.