Pakistan gov't mulls ban on former Premier Khan's party

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Pakistani government is mulling a ban on former Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Movement of Justice party, the country’s defense minister said Wednesday.

Khawaja Asif told reporters in the capital Islamabad: “A decision has not been taken yet, but a review is surely underway,” according to the Dawn newspaper.

The development comes as the coalition of 13 parties and the military launched a crackdown on the PTI after violence erupted on May 9 following Khan’s arrest in a corruption case.

“There is a lot of evidence and their people are telling themselves that they were briefed about this beforehand,” Asif said. “I feel that his struggle of a year … all his plans failed and this was his last move against the (Pakistan) armed forces.”

After Khan’s arrest triggered mass demonstrations and violence, the government and the agencies went after the PTI leadership and members. The alleged perpetrators are being tried in military courts.

The PTI says its 7,000 members and supporters have been detained and are not being released despite court orders.

The latest crackdown invited sharp criticism from human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, which urged authorities to "end the crackdown on the political opposition in the country through mass arrests, arbitrary detention and charging people under vague anti-terrorism laws.”

The human rights group demanded the immediate release of all those held “solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”

Several PTI leaders left the party, which Khan dubbed as "forced divorces."

-‘Enforced disappearance’

Amid concerns over alleged pressure faced by the country's media, the whereabouts of a senior journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, remain unknown since being arrested on May 11.

Calling for the journalist’s immediate recovery, Amnesty declared his case as “an enforced disappearance.”

“Despite court orders, police have failed to produce him, and his fate and whereabouts remain unknown. On 22 May, the police told the Lahore High Court that there is no trace of him in any police department in the province.”

“Punishing dissenting voices using enforced disappearance has been a worrying trend in Pakistan for many years and must be ended,” the rights watchdog said.

- Political turmoil

The South Asian nuclear country has been in the grip of a raging political turmoil, compounded by an ailing economy, since Khan's ouster through a no-trust vote in April 2021.

Khan has demanded snap general elections after he dissolved PTI-led two provincial governments.

The general elections in Pakistan are scheduled for October this year.

He has also fallen out with the country's powerful army and is facing a plethora of cases that his supporters claim are politically motivated.

The country’s anti-graft body, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), has alleged Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi received billions of rupees and a large piece of costly land to build Al Qadir University Trust in return for releasing an amount of £190 million ($236 million) to a property tycoon in 2020.

The amount was identified and returned to the country by the UK's National Crime Agency following a settlement with the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz in 2019.

During a four-hour questioning in the case on Tuesday by the NAB, Khan wondered why Malik Riaz was not being probed.

The anti-graft department alleges that Khan's PTI government struck a deal with Riaz that caused a loss of over $239 million to the national exchequer in a quid pro quo arrangement with the businessman.

Khan and his party leaders, however, have denied the allegations.

He also narrowly escaped assassination during a rally in November last year.