The US has expressed “concern” over the Pakistan government’s move to ban jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party and stressed that Washington will continue to “monitor these decisions and further decisions of the courts”.
In its latest attempt to suppress jailed former prime minister Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday announced that it has decided to ban Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and take action under Article 6 against others, including 71-year-old Imran Khan and 78-year-old former president Arif Alvi.
The government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party also said that Imran Khan’s party received foreign funding illegally and was involved in riots as well as “anti-state” activities.
US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said during a daily briefing on Monday: “Our understanding is that this is the beginning of a complex political process.” “Certainly any ban on a political concern or a political party is of great concern to us,” Matthew Miller said in response to questions from reporters in Washington.
Matthew Miller said the US supports “the peaceful upholding of constitutional and democratic principles, including respect for human rights and freedom of expression.”
He said the US supports democratic processes such as the rule of law and equal justice under the law, and added that Washington would continue to “monitor these decisions and further decisions taken by the courts”.
Matthew Miller also discussed political violence in the wake of the recent assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying the US “abhors political violence in any country, including Pakistan, and has spoken out and condemned it.”
Matthew Miller was responding to a question comparing the recent attack on Trump to a similar attack on jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan in November 2022.
He said, “We support the rule of law in Pakistan and every country in the world and we want that democratic principles and fundamental human rights and democratic rights of the people should be respected.”
The move to ban Imran Khan’s party appears to be an attempt by the government to prevent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from becoming the largest party in the National Assembly, as the announcement came soon after the Supreme Court granted relief to the party in the reserved seats case as well as to the party chief in the Iddat case.
Last week, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf got a major boost with a Supreme Court ruling declaring it eligible for reserved seats, depriving the ruling coalition of a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has reacted strongly to this move and in turn has demanded the implementation of Article 6 of the Constitution against those who have taken unconstitutional steps despite the existence of Constitution in the country.
Apart from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, leaders of other parties including Pakistan Peoples Party, Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Jamaat-e-Islami have also criticized this decision.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
