Pakistani police searched the headquarters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party on Monday, a week after the military junta declared a ban on political activity.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw police seal off Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) headquarters and escort several party members to a waiting van.
Pakistani media initially reported that party chairman Gohar Ali Khan, who is also a lawyer, was among those detained.
But an Islamabad police official, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP that no suspects had been arrested.
The official confirmed the arrest of Raoof Hassan, the party’s founding member and media director.
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“Raof Hasan was arrested, but the police did not arrest Gohar Ali Khan,” a police official said.
Hasan told AFP on Saturday that at least 10 PTI members or their relatives had been arrested in the past two months and that they had disappeared “without a trace”.
“Seven of them are employees of my department and they are trying to neutralize my department because we refuse to be silent,” he said.
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The government’s information minister announced the ban on the PTI last week, just days after the Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling in the party’s favour, dealing a major blow to the government.
Khan has been in jail for nearly a year, but this month a judge in Islamabad overturned his illegal marriage conviction and the Supreme Court awarded the PTI more seats, making it likely to become the largest party in parliament.
Analysts say the two incidents are seen as a major blow to the military-backed coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which took power in February.
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The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the attempt to ban the PTI “a major blow to democratic norms” and said it “smells of political desperation.”
“If this bill is forced through, it will only deepen polarization and increase the likelihood of political unrest and violence,” Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said in a statement.
Khan claims many of the cases against him were orchestrated to prevent him returning to power and remains in prison on new charges of inciting protests and corruption.
A UN committee of experts concluded this month that Khan’s detention “was without legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for public office.”
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