Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said Tuesday that PTI Chairman Imran Khan will face prosecution in a military court for events of May 9, which included violence following his arrest and attacks on military installations.
During an appearance on Dawn News show Live with Adil Shahzeb, Sanaullah claimed Imran personally planned the attacks on military installations before he was arrested, and there was evidence to support this claim.
Asked if Imran would be tried in a military court, Sanaullah replied: “Absolutely, why not?”.
“My understanding is that the plan he developed to target military installations and then executed is a military case.”
Khan’s arrest sparked deadly protests across the country, with army establishments being attacked and state buildings set ablaze.
Many PTI workers and leaders were arrested in a countrywide crackdown against the protests taken out by the PTI on May 09.
The military has termed the events of May 9 a “dark chapter” and announced to try the rioters under the Pakistan Army Act and Official Secrets Act.
The National Assembly on May 22 passed a resolution vowing to try rioters involved in the May 9 attacks on army and state installations under existing laws, including the Army Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act. The National Security Committee also endorsed the decision.
The interior minister’s statement today comes after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the government was considering banning the PTI over May 9 events.
“It is under consideration to ban PTI,” Asif told reporters. “The PTI has attacked the very basis of the state, that never happened before. It can’t be tolerated”.
Separately, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir has vowed to punish the “planners, instigators, abettors, and perpetrators]1 involved in May 9 tragedy.
COAS recently said that the legal process in this regard had commenced “under the Pakistan Army Act and Official Secret Act as per existing and established legal procedures derived from the Constitution of Pakistan.”
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