Pakistan government to seek ban of ex-PM Imran Khan's party

Pakistan's government will seek to ban the political party of jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan, the information minister said Monday, days after twin court decisions that favoured the former leader.

Former cricket star Khan was ousted in 2022, before launching a comeback campaign in which he criticised Pakistan's powerful generals and drew massive crowds onto streets across the country.

His arrest on corruption charges last year saw supporters storm military buildings and unleashed a crackdown against his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, culminating in elections marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging.

Khan has been jailed for nearly a year, but last week an Islamabad judge overturned his illegal marriage conviction while the Supreme Court awarded PTI more parliamentary seats -- a move set to make them the largest party in the National Assembly.

Both cases were considered a major blow to the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters the government would now bring a case to ban PTI to the Supreme Court.

"We will vigorously defend this case and spare no effort to contest it," he said, citing allegations against Khan including leaking state secrets and inciting riots.

Khan, 71, was banned from contesting the February elections, while PTI was sidelined and the Sharif-helmed alliance of parties considered close to the military came to power.

A PTI spokesman said in a statement that the bid to formally ban the party "is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can't be threatened and put under pressure".

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the attempt to ban PTI "an enormous blow to democratic norms" and said it "reeks of political desperation".

"If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarisation and the strong likelihood of political chaos and violence," Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said in a statement.

Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics.

In opposition, more than 200 court cases were brought against him. He was first briefly arrested in May 2023 -- sparking nationwide unrest, some of which targeted military installations.

Islamabad used the riots as justification for a crackdown which saw senior PTI leaders jailed or defect, before Khan was re-arrested last August and barred from standing for office.

PTI members were forced to campaign for February 8 elections as independents, and in the days ahead of the vote Khan was hit with a trio of convictions for graft, treason and illegal marriage.

Independent legal expert Osama Malik warned "it would be very difficult to prove, before the Supreme Court, that an entire party should be banned for the actions of a few".

"It would be in violation of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association," he told AFP.

A UN panel of experts found this month that Khan's detention "had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office".

The "prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose," it said, calling for his immediate release.

In a landmark ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court granted PTI more parliamentary seats in a post-election dispute arising from their run as independent candidates.

Khan's conviction for illegal marriage -- which carried a seven-year sentence -- was then overturned by an Islamabad court on Saturday.

All three of the convictions Khan was hit with ahead of the election have now been at least partially rolled back on appeal, though he remains jailed after other cases swiftly prevented his freedom.

PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan told AFP the party "will not tolerate" the government's effort to ban it. "PTI has become stronger than before. We will face it," he said.