Banning PTI: a Farewell to Democracy in Pakistan?

The prevailing political crises in Pakistan are exacerbating with the passage of time with both the government and opposition are taking hard lines against each other. Recently, the federal minster for information, Atta Tarar has announced that the government is envisioning to ban Pakistan Tahreek-e- Insaf (PTI) according to the Article 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Almost all the political analysts are of the view that the Government’s policies regarding banning PTI are not only anti-democratic but also a daunting task to materialize, owing to the various political and legal constraints.

It is not the first time in Pakistan, when the federal government has decided to ban a political party. In 1954, under the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case, the Communist Party of Pakistan has been banned by the government blaming that the party was conspiring a military coup against the government of Liaquat Ali Khan. The Awami Leauge and the National Awami Party (NAP) have also faced the similar consequences in 1971 and 1976, respectively, accusing that they have instigated anti-state activities. These are some of the major instances in which the popular political parties have been barred legally, but they remained active in practical arena.

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Atta Tarar in a press conference emphasized that the PTI has involved in so many anti-state activities including: the violation of secret service act by using the cypher for their political gains, receiving party funds from foreigners and the involvement in bringing a resolution in American Congress against the key Pakistani institutions and raising cross hairs about the February 8^th elections. Moreover, the minster has also informed that a reference is going to be formulated according to the Article 6, against the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, the ex- President, Arif Alvi and Qasim Suri, the former deputy speaker, claiming that their actions regarding the dissolution of the National Assembly in April 2022 was unconstitutional.

The constitution of Pakistan is quite clear about the banning of political parties and the enactment of Article 6. According to the article 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the federal government has right to send a reference to the Supreme Court within 15 days to ban any political party, if the Federal Cabinet is satisfied that the party is acting against the sovereignty of the state. However, Supreme Court has the ultimate power to accept or set aside the proposed reference, and the same procedure is also applied for the application of Article 6.

Majority of the constitutional experts believe that the proposition of the Federal Government may be substantial enough to entice their political workers, on legal grounds nonetheless, they lack enough evidences and rationales to satisfy the higher judiciary-the Supreme Court. PTI as a political party along with their leaders and workers have come out as victorious from civil and anti-terrorist courts in almost all the outstanding cases, including the Cypher Case, 9th May riots and most importantly the recent Supreme Court judgement about reserve seats making PTI as the largest party in the National Assembly clearly manifest that the government has failed to prove their allegations on legal grounds. Despite that it is also a cumbersome task for the Sharif regime to convince its allies, particularly Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as their key leaders have shown their reservation about the optics of government, declaring it against the spirit of democracy.

The government may likely face external pressure also, if she tries to execute her wishes of banning PTI. The State Department of America has vehemently declared that the Capitol will not support such action as it is the clear violation of the basic fundamental rights of the people. Meanwhile it can also put the ongoing engagements with International Monitoring Funds (IMF) in abeyance, because without the support of the KPK government the federal government will not carry out various pledges which she has made with IMF, for instance imposing taxes on agriculture sector. Hence, the government’s desires seem untenable because of the various internal and external impediments.

The pertinent question, what would be the end results of all these developments? The political temperature will increase further, resulting into the surge of political instability. State economy which is already in jeopardy will become more vulnerable: the laymen have to bear the brunt in the form of inflations, unemployment and social unrests. Meanwhile the non-political forces will continue to cherish the lion’s share in the decision making and political affairs, contrary to the spirit of the constitution of Pakistan.