Pakistan’s government plans to outlaw former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Tehreek-e-Insaf, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced on Monday. The cabinet is also seeking to bring new charges of treason against the politician, just days after a court overturned previous convictions.
Khan, 71, who is currently imprisoned on corruption charges, was ousted in April 2022. Since then, he has faced over 100 indictments, which his party has denounced as politically motivated.
On Monday, the interior minister said that the government had obtained “credible evidence” suggesting that Tehreek-e-Insaf had received money from foreign sources, in violation of national law. The cabinet also accused the party of inciting nationwide riots following Khan’s arrest last year.
Massive violent protests broke out in Pakistan in May 2023 following Khan’s detention, triggering a political crisis that only subsided when the Pakistani Supreme Court ordered his release. He was later arrested again and imprisoned on corruption charges.
“The federal government will move a case to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf,” Tarar said, arguing that the latest allegations are enough to allow the ban. However, media is reporting that the decision would still have to be approved by the Supreme Court.
According to Tarar, the cabinet will also file new treason charges against Khan and former President Arif Alvi for allegedly wrongfully dissolving the National Assembly in April 2022, during Khan’s final days in power. The prime minister, who took office in 2018, was ousted in a no-confidence vote.
Khan’s spokesman Zulfiqar Bukhari said the government’s actions were politically motivated. “This is a sign of panic as they have realized the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure,” he said.
Two days earlier, a Pakistani court overturned seven-year sentences given to Khan and his wife, Bushra, for allegedly violating Islamic law by marrying too soon after her divorce. In early June, the Islamabad High Court also overturned a sentence on Khan for allegedly having leaked state secrets.
The multiple convictions were used to bar Khan and his party from running in February elections, but the Supreme Court has since ruled that Tehreek-e-Insaf was wrongfully denied at least an extra 20 seats in parliament, in a blow to the ruling coalition.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission has warned that a ban on the party would “achieve nothing more than deeper polarization and a strong likelihood of political chaos and violence.”
Khan has accused the Pakistani military and the United States of plotting his ousting, claiming Washington conspired to overthrow his government after he visited Russia. On Monday, Minister Tarar, in turn, accused the former prime minister of seeking to damage relations between Islamabad and Washington.