LAHORE: The PPP Punjab has avoided directly opposing the federal government’s decision of banning the PTI.

“The decision to ban any political party cannot be appreciated,” Punjab PPP General Secretary Syed Hassan Murtaza said here on Tuesday, stopping short of clearly opposing the move. He cautioned that such decisions would weaken democracy.

“Such decisions have always led to the worst results in (our) political history.”

The government of PPP founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had banned the National Awami Party (NAP) ruling Balochistan in 1975. The ban had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Mr Murtaza was displeased to see that the ruling PML-N did not take its allies, including the PPP, into confidence before announcing the plan to ban the PTI.

“The PML-N should have taken its allies into confidence before taking such a decision.”

Referring to the May 9, 2023, attacks on military installations, purportedly by the PTI, which might be one of the reasons behind the ban decision, he said his party (PPP) was against bringing these elements to the dock.

“The characters involved in the events of May 9 should be brought to justice.”

The PPP leader, however, suggested that the country’s future lay in dialogue, tolerance and respect for each other’s mandate.

Tehreek-e-Istaqlal president Rehmat Khan Wardag believed that the ban would be a futile exercise and would only exacerbate the situation instead of improving it.

Recalling that the National Awami Party (NAP) had changed its nomenclature to become Awami National Party, effectively negating the impact of ban, he said the PTI could also take the same route and the relief the PML-N was expecting from the move would be only short-lived.

On the other hand, it would add fuel to the already tense relations between the ruling party and the opposition and eliminate chances of any much-needed reconciliation between the two.

Haqooq-i-Khalq Party General Secretary Farooq Tariq termed the move ‘undemocratic’ and ‘dictatorial’ lacking any sound legal basis.

He said the PTI was a parliamentary party and not a fascist one like the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) and that the HKP would oppose any strict action against a party that believed in the democratic process.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2024