Max Saint
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Police raided the (HQ) headquarters of the political party Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf on Monday. However, The former prime minister and the Ex-chairman of the party PTI Imran Khan is still in jail. This happened a week after the government, supported by the military, said that the political movement would not be allowed.
When an AFP journalist arrived on the site, she observed officers barricading off Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) headquarters and escorting several party members into waiting trucks.
According to the Interior Ministry, Islamabad police stormed the PTI’s digital media wing and detained Raoof Hasan, the chief of the press department and a founding member of the party.
Without providing more information, the ministry charged in a statement that “PTI is involved in anti-state propaganda.”
Gohar Ali Khan, the party chairman and a barrister, claimed to have escorted Hasan to the police station after the PTI and local media first claimed he had also been taken into custody.
“I had to be there for Hassan because he is our senior,” the MP said to the press.
He continued, “We are always prepared for an arrest.”
Hasan claimed on Saturday that at least ten PTI members or their families have been apprehended in the last two months. They had “disappeared” with “no trace,” he claimed.
He remarked, “They want to cripple my department because we won’t keep quiet. Seven of them are from my department alone.”
A few days after the Supreme Court delivered a significant decision in favor of the party that dealt a severe blow to the administration, the government’s communications minister declared last week that PTI would be banned.
After over a year in prison, Khan’s conviction for an illegal marriage was reversed this month by an Islamabad judge. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court granted the PTI more parliamentary seats, ensuring that they would become the largest party in the National Assembly.
Following the February elections, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a coalition and gained a legislative majority. Both instances were seen as a serious setback to Sharif’s leadership.
The PTI ban attempt “reeks of political desperation,” according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which also referred to it as “an enormous blow to democratic norms.”
This month, a United Nations panel of experts concluded that Khan’s arrest was unjustified and seemed to be done specifically to prevent him from seeking political office. Stay Connected to World News Topics.
