Islamabad, Pakistan – Last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended an olive branch to the leadership of the country’s main opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), during his address to the National Assembly.
“In 76 years of Pakistan’s independence, we have reached a point where we are even reluctant to shake hands,” Sharif said on June 26, lamenting the deep political divide in the country.
Yet, less than a month later, on July 15thInformation Minister Attaullah Tarar announced at a press conference in Islamabad that the government was considering banning the PTI, citing accusations of inciting violent protests last year and leaking classified information. The PTI is led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was in power from 2018 to 2022.
“The government has decided to ban PTI after examining all available evidence. We will take legal action to ban the party,” he said.
The announcement by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) government has drawn widespread condemnation, not only from its rivals but also from its allies and human rights groups. The United States itself has expressed concern.
Leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the second largest party in the ruling coalition, said they had not been consulted before the announcement.
“We were never heard and they have never contacted us since. We came to know about the government’s decision during the information minister’s press conference,” PPP senator Saleem Mandviwalla told Al Jazeera.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the country’s top human rights body, called the move an act of “political desperation”.
“The HRCP demands that this unconstitutional decision be immediately withdrawn. If implemented, it will only deepen polarization and likely lead to political chaos and violence,” the commission said.
Faced with a torrent of criticism, the PMLN leadership has backtracked – at least for now – saying that the final decision would not be taken without consulting allies in the ruling coalition.
“There are several factors behind the proposal to ban PTI, but we will first present our reasons for banning to our allies. Only once there is a consensus can we move forward with other measures,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Al Jazeera.
But why did the government announce its intention to ban this practice?
Many observers believe that the plan to ban the PTI, whose leader Imran Khan has been in jail since last August, was conceived following a Supreme Court Verdict last week.
The verdict gave a major legal victory to the PTI by declaring it eligible for a portion of the reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies. The court also recognised the PTI as a political party, saying that the absence of an election symbol does not affect a party’s legal rights to field candidates.
The controversy over reserved seats erupted after the country’s fall. General elections In February this year, a month before the elections, the Election Commission revoked the party’s election symbol, a cricket bat, for violating electoral laws. Days before the elections, Khan, a former cricket team captain and party leader, was convicted on multiple charges.
Despite the setback, PTI candidates, running independently, won the most seats (93), compared to 75 for the PMLN and 54 for the PPP. With the reserved seats added after the Supreme Court ruling, the PMLN-led government would no longer have the two-thirds majority in parliament needed for constitutional amendments.
“They (the government) just want to weaken their rival by any means possible, especially since the PTI is getting relief from the courts,” said Ahmed Ijaz, a political analyst.
Pakistan has a history of banning political parties under both military dictatorships and civilian administrations. In fact, the last two instances of banning political parties took place under the PTI government.
The Sindhi nationalist party Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Aresar was banned in May 2020, after the PTI government claimed that the party’s flag was being used by a banned group accused of carrying out violent attacks on security personnel. The second party to be banned by the PTI was the far-right religious group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, which was banned in May 2021 following protests in Punjab province that turned violent, killing several police officers. However, the party successfully appealed its ban and in October of that year, the ban was lifted.
Khan, who served as prime minister from August 2018 to April 2022, has since denounced the country’s powerful military, accusing it of colluding with political rivals to prevent him from gaining power. The military, which has directly ruled Pakistan for more than three decades and retains significant influence over political decision-making, denies the accusations.
The PTI faced severe repression after the May 9th Violence Last year, protests erupted after Khan was detained for less than 48 hours. PTI supporters went on a rampage, destroying public property and targeting military installations and monuments. Thousands of protesters were arrested and more than 100 were tried in secret military courts.
Former PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, who quit the party and retired from politics in November 2023, believes that the decision to ban PTI will not materialise.
“I don’t think even the PMLN leadership is seriously considering banning the party,” he told Al Jazeera. “I think this is just another tactic to buy time and apply pressure.”
Constitutional expert Faisal Fareed Chaudhry says that according to the Pakistani constitution, political parties can only be banned by the Supreme Court.
“The government can file a petition, but the final verdict will be given by the Supreme Court. It is important to remember that last week, the court declared the PTI a political party,” he told Al Jazeera.
Chaudhry also said that charges leading to a ban must include evidence of actions against state sovereignty or collusion with a foreign power.
“I don’t think the government has enough evidence to take this case forward. It is just a matter of putting pressure on the judiciary, which ruled against the government in the reserved seats case. It seems the government has no plan, and this decision will not worry the PTI,” he added.
Political analyst Ijaz warned that the decision to ban the PTI could backfire on the government. “Attempts to ban political parties in the past have not been successful, whether under political regimes or dictatorships, even though the banned parties were not as powerful as the PTI,” he added.
Asif, the federal minister, said the government had gathered enough evidence against the PTI to push for a ban. He also dismissed criticism from the West.
“This is an internal matter for us,” he said, “and what the international community says about a decision we make for our internal affairs, in accordance with our constitution, should not matter.”
