Coalition to get tough on PTI

The ruling coalition on Monday hinted at banning the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), as the government claimed the party had become a terrorist outfit after its involvement in attacking state institutions, including the army, the judiciary, and law-enforcement agencies.

The coalition government condemned the attacks carried out allegedly on the orders of PTI Chairman Imran Khan on police and Rangers, who were implementing court orders when they went to his Zaman Park residence in Lahore and when Imran came along with his supporters to a court in Islamabad the other day.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led ruling alliance held a six-hour-long huddle with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair. The meeting was attended by leaders of the coalition parties and federal ministers.

An official statement issued following the meeting stated that a joint session of parliament had been called on March 22 (tomorrow) for taking important decisions to ensure the writ of the state.

The meeting also strongly condemned a social media campaign being run from abroad against the state institutions, especially against Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir, and asked the overseas Pakistanis not to be a part of this “sinister agenda”.

The condemnation come hours after Prime Minister Shehbaz, in a tweet, accused Imran of “damaging the country and undermining our armed forces and their leadership” and stressed the need for rejecting his political rival’s “agenda”.

Shehbaz stressed that the “overseas patriotic Pakistanis should raise their voice against the foreign-funded campaign,” and cautioned them against the “poisonous politics” in which they were being used as pawns.

“PTI’s disgusting smear campaign against Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir at the behest of Imran Niazi is deserving of the strongest condemnation,” Shehbaz tweeted.

The meeting decided that legal action would be taken against those running a dirty campaign from abroad against the martyrs of Lasbela last August. They said that this behaviour was unacceptable in any society and “this is not freedom of speech”.

The alliance leaders expressed concerns over the treatment meted out to the PTI chairman by the courts, saying: “The treatment of Imran Khan and his colleagues is deepening the impression that the scales of justice are not equal”. The official statement declared that “two standards of justice in one country are not acceptable”.

Also, the prime minister and other key members of the ruling alliance condemned an audio leak purportedly of a former chief justice of Pakistan and a PTI lawyer, saying that the vulgar conversation about PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif in the leaked audio was alarming.

In the meeting, according to the official statement, the overall economic, political, internal and external law and order situation of the country was discussed in detail.

The meeting was apprised of the prime minister’s initiates for the economy, restoration of the IMF programme, public relief, including Kisan package, free supply of flour to the poor families in Ramazan, subsidy on petrol price for people with low wages and income.

It was also given a briefing about the special discount schemes, conduct of the CSS special examination for the country’s youth, promotion of solar energy, interest-free and subsidised loans for youth, rehabilitation of flood victims and other programmes.

The statement said that the meeting appreciated Shehbaz’s efforts for restoring the economy and the IMF programme, while simultaneously providing maximum relief to the people despite the difficult conditions. The allied parties expressed full confidence in Prime Minister Shehbaz.

While condemning the attacks and violence on police and Rangers on the order of Imran Khan, the huddle not only declared that it was unacceptable but said that attacking officers and employees of the state institutions by violent and trained groups with petrol bombs, sticks, guns, arms, was very alarming.

“This behaviour is not at all constitutional, legal, democratic and political,” the statement read. “Taking up arms against the state, targeting its officers and men, firing at them, burning vehicles, besieging and ransacking court premises, looting, throwing police vehicles into canals and torturing the on-duty policemen is the height of lawlessness which no state can tolerate,” the meeting declared.

The meeting expressed solidarity with the law-enforcement personnel and lauded their services. It declared that strict action should be taken against the law-breaking elements under the law and no leniency should be shown to them, adding: “Actions against the state cannot be tolerated.”

Subsequently, the meeting while referring to PTI workers clashes with the law-enforcers noted that the entire nation had seen that the PTI was not a political party but a group of trained militants of banned organisations. It said that evidences and proofs were available and it had been decided to take action in this regard according to the law.

Later, talking to The Express Tribune, a senior official denied that the government was planning to file reference in Supreme Court for banning the PTI. He, however, added that only writ of state would be maintained at any cost.

Senior lawyers believe that the process regarding the banning of a political party was so difficult as the government had to present evidences before the Supreme Court for justifying the ban.

PM Shehbaz, federal ministers, Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif, Rana Sanaullah, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Ayaz Sadiq, Ahsan Iqbal, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Chaudhry Salik as well as PML-N’s Ata Tarar and Malik Ahmad Khan, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira, MQM-P’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Qaumi Watan Party’s Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, National Democratic Movement’s Mohsin Dawar, Awami National Party’s Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan’s Anas Norani, MNA Aslam Bhootani and others attended the meeting.

(WITH INPUT FROM HASNAAT MALIK)