The United States on Monday commented on the Pakistani government’s recent decision to ban the PTI, saying it was “very concerned” about any such move against the political party.
In its latest attempt to crack down on the PTI, the federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Monday that it has decided to ban the party and seek Article 6 proceedings against its founder Imran Khan, ex-president Dr. Arif Alvi and former Deputy National Assembly (NA) Qasim Suri.
The move appeared to be an attempt to prevent PTI from becoming the single largest party in NA as the announcement was made just before the Supreme Court’s relief to the party on reserved seats as well as to the party president. in the case of Iddat.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller commented on the development at the State Department’s daily briefing yesterday.
“We understand this is the beginning of what will be a complex political process,” he said, “but certainly banning a political concern is something — or a political party is something that would be of great concern to us.”
Miller said the US supports “the peaceful promotion of constitutional and democratic principles, including respect for human rights and freedom of expression.”
He said the U.S. supports democratic processes such as government and equal justice under the law, adding that Washington will continue to “monitor — these decisions and other decisions — any other decisions by the courts.”
Miller also spoke about political violence given the recent attempt on the life of Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Responding to a question from a journalist who compared the recent incident to the November 2022 assassination attempt on jailed leader Imran Khan, Miller said the US abhors “political violence in any country, including Pakistan, and has spoken out against it and condemned it.” it”.
“And we support the rule of law in Pakistan and every country in the world and we want respect for democratic principles and basic human rights and democratic rights to be observed,” he added.
