After last week’s protests in Islamabad, there is renewed talk of banning Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the largest party in the country’s parliament. The Pakistani government has termed the party an enemy of the state, and a central reason for most of the problems faced by Pakistan today.
On November 23, PTI had given the “final call” for a rally at the D-Chowk square in the capital of Islamabad, demanding the release of its leader and former prime minister Imran Khan from jail and restoration of the mandate it claims was “stolen” by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Peoples Party of Pakistan (PPP) with the help of the military establishment during the February’s national elections. The rally later turned it into an indefinite sit-in.
The government had declared the protests “illegal” and used massive force to prevent the PTI supporters from reaching Islamabad, leading to clashes between the protesters and the security forces.
The Pakistani government has claimed that at least four security personnel were killed and scores of others were injured in PTI’s “violent protests.” PTI was forced to call the protests off on November 28, following the heavy state repression and violence. It has since claimed that at least 12 protesters were confirmed killed by the security forces and more protesters were missing and injured.
Since the protests, the government has booked PTI leader and former prime minister Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, and several senior leaders of the party on fresh charges under the country’s anti-terrorism act after reports of violence during the protests. It has also constituted a special “task force” to investigate the violence, and arrested hundreds of people both during the protests and afterwards.
Khan has already been incarcerated for over a year in numerous cases, which PTI claims are politically motivated.
The arrest of PTI supporters, mostly Pashtuns from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province where the party has a government, has led to the allegations of ethnic profiling by the state. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed concerns and asked the Islamabad police to refrain from such acts which can “create divisions among various communities living in the country.”
However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pressed authorities to take measures to punish protesters, even accusing them of killing security personnel and damaging public property while chairing the meeting of the “task force” constituted to investigate the violence during PTI’s protests on Tuesday, December 3.
The government has repeatedly denied any crackdown was unleashed by the security forces, claiming their actions were prompted in self-defense. Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has claimed that the PTI is spreading a false narrative about security forces firing on protesters, and even dismissed the claims of them being killed.
Terming the PTI a “terrorist organization”
Punjab’s provincial government announced the formation of a new 10,000-strong force to “deal” with the similar protests in the future, with Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz even calling PTI a “group of terrorists.”
The term was used by Prime Minister Sharif as well. On Friday, Sharif reiterated the possibility of banning PTI, comparing the party’s repeated calls for protest as an “invasion against the federal capital” of Islamabad. He also termed the PTI as a party of the insurgents and of “abettors, saboteurs and miscreants that must be held accountable under the law.” Sharif blamed PTI for the country’s economic problems, and accused it of trying to sabotage Pakistan’s relationship with other countries.
PTI’s protests coincided with the visit of Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko.
Meanwhile, provincial assemblies controlled by PML-N and PPP discussed bills demanding a ban on PTI. In Balochistan, where PML-N is in power as a part of a broader coalition, the assembly adopted one such resolution on Friday. A similar resolution was defeated in the Punjab assembly, where PPP opposed the motion demanding the government should instead “take the initiative to bring the PTI back into the national mainstream.”
The Sharif government had attempted to ban PTI earlier this year, claiming it was difficult to work with the party. However, it had to discard the proposal following widespread criticism.
PTI has repeatedly maintained that the PML-N and PPP government is a puppet of the military establishment in the country and has no popular base. PTI has claimed that Khan was removed from power in 2022 due to his criticism of external interference in the country’s politics, and his criticism of the military establishment. That is the reason, it claims, which led to PTI being deliberately targeted and denied a fair playing field during the February national elections.
Reacting to the Pakistan government’s crackdown on protesters and allegations against the PTI, Ammar Ali Jan, head of the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP), called it a distraction to hide the failure of the ruling establishment. He too claimed that “Pakistan is suffering because of the Generals who toppled governments, rigged elections, monopolized the economy and pushed us into needless wars.” The HKP and other left parties in the country have opposed the idea of banning PTI.
