Khan, 71, has been lodged in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail in multiple cases since he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022.
According to Geo News, the federal government has stepped up pressure on the PTI, banning the former ruling party and deciding to file treason charges under Article 6 against PTI founder Khan and former Pakistan President Arif Alvi.
Tarar said the country cannot move forward with just the PTI.
“Our patience and tolerance are considered our weakness. The government is trying to bring political and economic stability to the country but there are moves to thwart these efforts and therefore PTI and Pakistan cannot co-exist,” Tarar said, adding that the federal government would file a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on the party.
Minister Tarar also announced that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government and its coalition have decided to appeal the Supreme Court’s decision reserving seats in the National Assembly for the PTI. “The Supreme Court has given relief to the PTI which it had not even asked for,” he said. The decision was taken in view of the former ruling party’s involvement in the May 9 incident last year and attempts by former and current PTI leaders to sabotage Pakistan’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Geo News added. Referring to the then government’s decision to dissolve Parliament in 2022 amid a no-confidence motion against Khan, the minister said the ruling coalition has also decided to file a lawsuit against the then Prime Minister, then President Alvi and then Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri.
“Whether it was the foreign funding case, the May 9 riots or the code manipulation case in which former Pakistani ambassador to the US Asad Majeed, who created the code, categorically stated that there was “no threat”, the PTI kept denouncing that the country was being put at risk.
“You have tried to undermine diplomatic ties with Pakistan for political gains and tried to pass a resolution against Pakistan in the US,” Dawn quoted Tarar as saying.
Incidentally, the government’s decision comes soon after the Supreme Court granted relief to the PTI in the reserved seats case and to Mr Khan in the illegal marriage case.
The move comes after PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was booked in a case linked to the May 9 riots and arrested in a case linked to the events that followed Khan’s arrest on corruption charges.
In a landmark ruling last week, the Supreme Court declared Khan’s PTI entitled to seats reserved for women and minorities in the national assembly and four provincial assemblies, which would make it the largest party in parliament with 109 seats.
On Saturday, a local court overturned the convictions of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, 49, in a non-Islamic marriage case for violating the waiting period required for Muslim women between two marriages.
The PTI founder and hundreds of his party colleagues are on trial in several cases, including under the Official Secrets Act, in connection with violent protests by his supporters on May 9 last year that damaged key military installations across Pakistan.
Khan’s party members are said to have destroyed 12 military installations, including Jinnah House (the residence of the corps commander in Lahore), Mianwali Air Base and the ISI building in Faisalabad. The Army Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi was also attacked by insurgents for the first time.
