Pakistan Says It Will Ban Party of Jailed Former Leader Imran Khan

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Pakistan Says It Will Ban Party of Jailed Former Leader Imran Khan

Pakistan’s government plans to ban the party of the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, officials said on Monday, a decision expected to exacerbate the political turmoil that has consumed the country for the past two years.

The country’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the government was moving to outlaw Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., after actions that had posed “a direct threat to the fabric of our nation.”

But analysts said the decision — which few expect to be upheld in court — reflected growing desperation by the Pakistani government. It has struggled to assert its authority after an election this year in which the country’s powerful military was accused of rigging dozens of races against the broadly popular P.T.I.

“If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarization and the strong likelihood of political chaos and *********,” Asad Iqbal *****, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said in a statement.

The government’s announcement came days after Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that P.T.I. was entitled to 23 unelected seats in Parliament reserved for women and minorities. That decision stripped the governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of its two-thirds majority in Parliament, weakening an already fragile government that lacks mass popular support.

P.T.I., which won more seats than any other party in the election despite a crackdown on its candidates and supporters, has become a seemingly unstoppable force since Mr. Khan fell out with the military and was ousted in a vote of no confidence in 2022.

After his removal from office, Mr. Khan made a stunning political comeback and whipped up popular protests against the military, which he accused of orchestrating his ouster. He has stirred up a swell of anger at the generals’ longtime role in shaping the country’s politics from behind the scenes. He has also helped make Pakistan’s politics more polarized than ever, analysts say.

Mr. Khan, a cricket star-turned-populist politician, was imprisoned in August on what he claimed were trumped-up charges.

At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Tarar, the information minister, said P.T.I. was being banned because it had helped incite violent protests last year, and because party leaders had leaked classified information and received foreign funds from sources that are ******** in Pakistan. P.T.I. leaders have denied the allegations.

Mr. Tarar also said that the government planned to file a treason case against Mr. Khan and other key figures in the P.T.I. leadership for their roles in dissolving Parliament after the no-confidence motion to remove Mr. Khan was introduced in 2022. He added that the government planned to appeal the Supreme Court’s ruling last week giving P.T.I. additional parliamentary seats.

P.T.I. leaders and allies of Mr. Khan sharply criticized the government’s move to ban the party and promised to challenge it in court.

“This is a clear sign of panic,” said Zulfi Bukhari, a close aide to Mr. Khan. “I’ve mentioned before that we are experiencing a soft martial law, and this move only substantiates our point further.”

The announcement on Monday was the second time in recent years that political leaders in Pakistan had moved to ban an opposing party in an apparent effort to curb its growing popularity.

In 2021,

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Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or T.L.P., a religious party known for ********* against members of ********* faiths. The ban was lifted seven months later, after party leaders staged mass protests.

The ban on P.T.I. threatens to plunge the country into mass unrest yet again, analysts said. It may also backfire, they said, deepening support for Mr. Khan, who is seen by many Pakistanis as a political martyr.

“No political party should be banned in this day and age, least of all one that has the largest number of seats in Parliament,” Omar R. Quraishi, a columnist for The News, a leading daily newspaper in Pakistan, said. “Any such ban will only make the party more popular and make a mockery of democracy.”

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