The government of Pakistan has doubled down on its stance to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Information Minister Attatullah Tarar told Geo News on Tuesday.
Tarar said that the government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will proceed with the "principled" resolution to ban the party of Imran Khan and it will be varied after legal consultations, reported Geo News.
"[We] have consulted with the Pakistan Peoples Party with regards to the PTI ban and are currently in talks with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan [...] people are strongly supporting [the idea of banning [PTI]", the outlet quoted Tarar as saying.
This comes after Imran Khan's acknowledgement to journalists at Adala Jail that he had called for a protest outside the general headquarters if he was arrested, according to Dawn.
The Pakistan Information Minister's statement comes after his comment last week about banning PTI. "PTI and Pakistan could not co-exist", Geo News reported quoting him.
Tarar said that the decision was taken due to the involvement of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the May 9 riots and other PTI leaders' attempts to sabotage a deal with IMF.
He was quoted as saying, "We have principally decided to ban PTI, but waiting for a broader consensus (among ruling allies) to impose the ban."
Imran Khan criticised the Pakistan government on Sunday saying that the banning of any political party would amount to "murder of democracy". "Our party was already banned, it was not allowed to contest the elections, and the chairman, vice chairman and president of the party were already in jail, they still say that the party is banned. It will be done," Khan said.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was also not on board with the decision of the government while the other ally PML-Q raised questions on the decision.
Concerns were also raised by the civil society with the Pakistan Human Rights Council calling it a violation of fundamental rights.
