— PPP disagrees with ban PTI proposal, says court may strike down decision
— Others want Imran Khan’s party to be banned over attacks on police
ISLAMABAD: The top leadership of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Monday failed to evolve consensus on a proposal to ban Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) following the recent clashes between the PTI workers and police at Islamabad judicial complex and Zaman Park.
The PDM leaders met here with Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif in the chair to discuss the recent political situation. PM Sharif had summoned a session of the heads of the coalition parties of the federal government to discuss the current political situation.
Sources privy to the meeting details told Pakistan Today that the PDM meeting discussed the proposal to ban the PTI in threadbare. However, the sources said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and another political party opposed the option to ban the PTI.
The sources said that the meeting was informed that the proposal was flawed as the courts would soon strike down the government decision to ban the PTI and Imran Khan’s party would emerge victorious out of the crisis.
During the meeting, the sources said, majority of the participants were of the view that they should not be blackmailed from Imran Khan’s statements.
“We should not be afraid of such statement, as PTI was exposing itself,” the sources quoted the PDM leaders as saying. The meeting participants also raised questions over the ‘instant relief’ Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was getting from courts, arguing that the former premier gets bail whatever he files an application.
Moreover, majority of the PDM leaders opined that elections on national and provincial assemblies should be held ‘at the same time’.
A day earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) top leadership, Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz also held a two-hour-long-meeting to discuss the country’s current political situation.
Sources said that Maryam Nawaz arrived at the PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif’s residence at Jati Umarh while the party supremo Nawaz Sharif participated in the meeting via video link.
Sources claimed that matters related to country’s political and economic situation were discussed during the meeting. The PML-N leadership also expressed ‘serious concern’ over ‘assault’ on law enforcement agencies (LEAs) by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) workers.
During the meeting, Nawaz Sharif directed PM Shehbaz to ensure ‘enforcement of law’ at any cost.
“We have always respected institutions and the judiciary. We had always appeared before court whenever summoned,” the PML-N supremo told the meeting. Interestingly, the caretaker chief minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi held a presser the other day to inform that Punjab Police had been given free hand to deal with the PTI workers and any violence by the PTI workers would be dealt with iron-fist from the word go.
