Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday revealed that the government was thinking of banning Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over the violent protests that shook the country earlier this month.
"A decision has not been taken yet, but a review is surely underway," the minister told reporters in Islamabad.
According to Asif, the Shehbaz Sharif-led government is mulling the ban in the wake of the vandalism unleashed by Khan's supporters was a direct challenge to the foundation of Pakistan.
He added that by attacking military installations, the arsonists have crossed all limits and an attack on army property is like targeting the state itself.
"Is there any crime that was not committed on May 9? The ISI office was attacked, they tried to enter the Cantonment in Sialkot but that attack was repulsed … they also set fire to the Lahore Corps Commander's house," the minister stated. "Imran Khan sees the army as his adversary. His entire politics was done in the lap of the army and today he has suddenly decided to stand against it."
The minister also reminded people that Khan was yet to condemn the violence that left at least 10 dead and hundreds injured.
Meanwhile, PTI senator and a prominent member of the party's legal team, Ali Zafar, responded to the minister's remarks, saying that a political party cannot be banned in Pakistan.
He then pointed out that if the government did move ahead with its plan to ban the PTI, its decision would be challenged in the Supreme Court, where there would be a 100 percent chance of being "declared null and void within a day".
"Efforts were made to put a ban on Jamaat-i-Islami long ago. […] The SC had said that you cannot ban a political party and it is everyone’s right to form a political party," Zafar said in a media interaction outside the apex court.
"As far as vandalism is concerned, that is an individual act […] but a political party cannot be banned," the senator asserted.