Life Style

‘Ridiculous and desperate’: Lawyers, journalists, politicians react to govt’s decision to ban PTI – Pakistan

Mubashir Zaidi terms move a “grave mistake”; Farhatullah Babar terms talk of banning a political party or trial of a political leader for treason “rubbish”.

Days after it was granted relief from the apex court, the government on Monday announced plans to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) — a move that has been termed as “desperate” and “unsustainable” by experts.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, Information Minister Atta Tarar said the country could not move forward with the Imran Khan-led party’s existence.

“In view of the foreign funding case, May 9 riots, and the cipher episode as well as the resolution passed in the US, we believe that there is very credible evidence present to have the PTI banned.

“We are going to impose a ban on PTI and we believe that Article 17 of the Constitution gives the government the right to ban political parties, and this matter will be referred to the Supreme Court,” he said.


Article 17

Every citizen, not being in the service of Pakistan, shall have the right to form or be a member of a political party, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan and such law shall provide that where the Federal Government declares that any political party has been formed or is operating in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan, the Federal Government shall, within fifteen days of such declaration, refer the matter to the Supreme Court whose decision on such reference shall be final.


Tarar added that the government had further decided to file a reference against Imran, former president Arif Alvi and former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri under Article 6 of the Constitution — which corresponds to high treason — for dissolving assemblies in April 2022 despite a motion of no-confidence being moved against the PTI chief in Parliament.

The decision comes on the heels of two major developments in the PTI’s favour: the Supreme Court’s decision to declare the party eligible for reserved seats and the overturning of Imran’s conviction in the Iddat case.

In the aftermath of the top court’s judgement, the PTI is set to emerge as the single largest party in the National Assembly.

Here’s what lawyers, politicians and journalists had to say about the government’s latest move:

post on X.

said the country’s history showed that a political party’s leadership could not be eliminated by banning it. “This is a lesson from the past that the PPP has learned … the PML-N is yet to understand it,” he added.

Separately, in an interview with Geo News, he said the government’s move was not unexpected, recalling that talks regarding the ban on PTI had surfaced following the May 9 riots.

“But it seems like the government thought filing a reference at that time would be a wrong move given that Arif Alvi was the president and would have the option of not sending the reference forward. They now decided to go forward with the reference because Alvi has gone back to being a part of the PTI,” he pointed out.


Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button