Pakistan’s government has sealed the headquarters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, after officially declaring it ‘banned’. Shehbaz Sharif government took this step on Monday night local time.
It is known that the offices of Imran Khan’s party have been sealed in the capital Islamabad as well as Lahore, Karachi and other cities. Last week, the country’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said that they are going to ban Imran’s party. He said, “We believe that the evidence found in various cases, including irregular receipt of foreign donations, direct involvement in May 9 violence, Cypher (leakage of state secret information) cases, is sufficient to ban PTI.”
After that it was officially announced to ban PTI. The opposition has accused the Pakistani government of this action as ‘political revenge’ even during the case in the Supreme Court regarding the recognition of Imran Khan’s party. Accused in multiple cases, Imran Khan is currently imprisoned in Adiala Jail. Islamabad Police said on Tuesday that 10 leaders including Rauf Hasan, one of the founders of his party, have been arrested.
A section of political observers feel that due to this action of the Shehbaz Sharif government, the atmosphere of conflict between the rulers and the Supreme Court may be created in Pakistan again after almost two decades.
Incidentally, at the beginning of this month, the Supreme Court of Pakistan practically rejected the decision of the Election Commission and said that former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI party is entitled to get 23 reserved seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament.
In that case, the Election Commission had argued that only recognized political parties were entitled to 70 seats reserved for women and minorities as per the proportional voting rate. As PTI has been de-recognised, they cannot get proportional representation. But the 13-member constitution bench of the Supreme Court dismissed the petition outright. Incidentally, the Pakistan government banned PTI soon after.
Source: Perstoday
