Senior Vice President PML-N Maryam Nawaz on Friday asked the authorities to ban PTI and declare it a terrorist organisation, a day after reports of militants’ presence at Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence emerged.
“The state is on a backfoot when it fears bloodshed as it assigns sanctity to the citizens’ lives,” Maryam said in response to a question from reporters after her presser, on Friday.
[The situation wouldn’t have been so] had Imran Khan realised he shouldn’t have used his workers as a shield to evade an arrest, she added.
The party stalwart further said, “But if that isn’t the case, the state should sit down with the institutions and decide to remove the label of a political organisation from the PTI.”
“It should be dealt as a banned, militant, and terrorist organisation,” she said. “If that doesn’t happen, it will raise a question on [the performance of] the caretaker government.”
The statement comes a day after senior journalist Hamid Mir claimed the presence of Iqbal Khan, a former member of the TTP Swat’s Sufi Mohammad faction at PTI chairman Imran Khan’s Zaman Park.
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Earlier, Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir spoke about ‘militant elements’ at the residence during the operation.
Despite daylong clashes with the protesters, police remained unable to detain the PTI chief. Several party workers and police personnel were injured in the clashes that ensued.
Addressing a presser accompanied by IG police Usman Anwar, he said that the authorities had received information about the presence of militants belonging to K-P at the site.
The caretaker minister assured the state would take action against such elements once the operation is complete.
Earlier today, Imran was granted bail in multiple cases with terrorism charges, with the court stopping all action against him until Tuesday. The former premier is facing at least nine FIRs filed against him.
