Political Crossroads: Pakistan Contemplates Banning Imran Khan’s Party As Minister Weighs In
- Since then, Khan, who is 70 years old, has been campaigning for an early general election and gathering followers all over the country.
- Khan is also facing charges of corruption, which he says were made up to get him out of politics.
Pakistan is thinking about banning the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan for attacking the state, the defense minister said on Wednesday. This is likely to anger Khan’s followers and make it harder for him to get along with the military.
The former cricket star is in the middle of the latest and most important part of a long-running conflict between civilian leaders and Pakistan’s powerful military, which has either run the government directly or kept an eye on it.
Khan’s fans have taken to the streets to protest, which has made people worry about the stability of the country, which has nuclear weapons and is in the middle of its worst economic crisis in decades.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told reporters that Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had attacked the “very basis of state,” which could not be allowed.
“It is being thought about to ban PTI,” he said, adding that a government move to ban the party would need final approval from the parliament.
The minister was talking about Khan’s protesters who broke into military and government buildings this month, including the army offices.
Khan or a PTI spokesman were not available to talk right away.
Khan became prime minister in 2018, even though both he and the military denied it at the time. The military thought that Khan’s conservative and nationalist ideas would help protect its own interests.
But Khan afterward fell out with the generals because they thought he tried to get in the way of important security promotions. In 2022, he lost a vote of confidence and was no longer prime minister.
Since then, Khan, who is 70 years old, has been campaigning for an early general election and gathering followers all over the country. However, the prime minister who replaced him, Shahbaz Sharif, has turned down the call for an election before the one that is scheduled for late this year.
Khan is also facing charges of corruption, which he says were made up to get him out of politics.
Khan was taken into custody on May 9 because of the charges. This caused his supporters to protest and attack military sites.
Khan was later let out of jail on bail.
On Tuesday, investigators from an office that tries to stop corruption talked to him for about three hours.
Facebook Comments