Ex-PM Imran Khan retorts sharply on Pakistan government's decision to ban his party, claims action 'out of desperation'

Islamabad: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Monday reacted sharply to the government's decision to ban the party, saying the move came “out of desperation” and is a “sign of panic" within the federal administration.

The Pakistan government announced that it would ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for its alleged involvement in anti-state activities and slap cases against him and two of his senior party colleagues for treason.

Khan, 71, faces over 200 cases, has been convicted in a few of them, and is currently lodged at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

“The federal government has decided to ban PTI as a political party. Reasons cited by the information minister are the cipher case and the US Congressional Resolution on electoral rigging and politically motivated cases with no merit in sight. The PML-N is shooting its own foot for these reasons,” the PTI said in a statement.

The PML-N - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz - is run by Khan’s arch rival Nawaz Sharif and is a major coalition partner in the ruling dispensation headed by his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif.

“The PML-N is shooting its own foot for these reasons because Khan has been acquitted in a cipher case and the US congressional resolution points out the ordeal a political party has to face over the period of a few months,” the PTI statement added.

Senior PTI leader Senator Ali Zafar told Geo News that the federal government was attempting to ban the party “out of desperation” as the Supreme Court had ruled in its favour in the reserved seats case and said that his party would not allow the decision's implementation “even for a second” as it is against the law of the land.

He was referring to the key judgment of the Supreme Court last week that declared that Khan’s PTI was eligible for the seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and four provincial assemblies.

If allotted thus, the PTI will become the largest party in the National Assembly with 109 seats.

“The government doesn’t realise, the UN resolution wasn’t a bilateral agreement but an independent observation made by a charter, Pakistan is a part of. Pakistan is a signatory of the UN and therefore any provocative comments could lead to Pakistan losing its membership,” the party added.

The PTI statement also pointed out that the Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, who announced the government decision at a press conference, ignored all questions regarding the US and the UN working group observations, “maybe because he's either unaware of its implications or just doesn’t have a clue.”

“And this is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure. So they will try to move under the cabinet,” it said, adding, “Since no judge is willing to give in to blackmail or pressure, I have been saying for a while now we are under a soft martial law and this move only proves our point further.” The party also issued a longish statement on its X handle.

Khan has already claimed the February 8 general elections to have witnessed the ‘Mother of All Rigging’ and called his rivals the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as “mandate thieves.”

In the election, both PML-N and PPP individually won fewer seats than 92 won by independent candidates backed by Khan’s PTI. The two parties entered into a post-poll alliance under which the PML-N got the prime minister’s post and the chief ministership of Punjab province while the PPP got the presidential post and the chief ministership in Sindh province.