By Charlotte Greenfield and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan is planning to ban former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party and move the country’s top court to press treason charges against him, the information minister said on Monday.
The move to ban Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was based on the “proven” charge of the party receiving foreign funds from sources that are illegal in Pakistan, and rioting by its supporters last year that targeted military installations, Minister Attaullah Tarar said.
“The federal government will move a case to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf,” he said, adding that the plan will be taken up before the cabinet, which was empowered to take a decision.
The government will also file a legal reference against Khan and former President Arif Alvi for treason charges under the country’s constitution before the Supreme Court, Tarar said.
Khan’s aide Zulfikar Bukhari said the decision was a move towards “soft martial law”. “This is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure,” he said.
The latest turmoil comes at a time when the country has to make politically unpopular reforms such as raising taxes on farm income to get $7 billion from the IMF.
“A weak government, hobbled by questions about its legitimacy and consumed with desperate attempts to keep Imran Khan from being released will struggle to take the kinds of decisions that are needed to keep the IMF program on track,” Khurram Husain, an economic analyst and journalist.
The Supreme Court had last week ruled that PTI was eligible for more than 20 extra reserved seats in parliament, ramping up pressure on the country’s weak coalition government.
PTI candidates contested the Feb. 8 election as independents after it was barred from the polls.
It was not immediately clear what impact the planned ban would have on the court’s decision to grant reserved seats.
Minister Tarar said the government would seek a legal review of the reserved seats issue.
The reasons behind the move to ban Khan’s party included PTI lobbying in Washington to get the U.S. House of Representatives to support a resolution against Pakistan’s elections and writing to the IMF for an election audit before helping the country.
Independent rights group, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said on social media platform X it was “shocked” and called on the government to withdraw its decision.
Jailed since August, Khan was on Saturday acquitted, along with his third wife, on charges that they married unlawfully but he will not be freed after authorities issued new orders to arrest him.
Khan came to power in 2018 and was ousted in 2022 after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military.
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Charlotte Greenfield and Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Angus MacSwan and Arun Koyyur)
