Imran Khan arrest: 'Not in favour of banning any political party,' says Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

Amid Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistani government’s crackdown against the country’s main Opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said he is not in favour of banning any political party and will be the last person to agree on such a decision. After the arrests of top leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, including former prime minister Imran Khan and former ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Fawad Chaudhry, Bilawal said it was imperative for the PTI to maintain its status as a political party and not transform into a group that supports terrorism, Dawn reported. “This would help prevent any need for the party to be banned,” Bilawal said. He further alleged that if PTI decides to engage in an armed rebellion against the state, then it may become necessary for the government to ban the party. However, he expressed hope that the Pakistani government would not head in that direction. Qureshi, a close aide of Imran Khan, was arrested on Thursday for “inciting violent protests” and threatening peace, amid the worsening political turmoil in the country that has left at least eight people dead. A video shared by PTI on Twitter shows plain-clothed men taking him away, with him waving at party workers before departing from the location where he was detained. The PTI claimed that 66-year-old Qureshi was arrested by the Islamabad police in the early hours of Thursday and transferred to an “undisclosed location”. Police said PTI leaders Qureshi, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Falaknaz Chitrali, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema and Maleeka Bokhari had been arrested so far. “Arrests had been made for inciting arson and violent protests under a well thought out plan for threatening peace,” it tweeted on Thursday. Qureshi’s arrest comes two days after paramilitary forces whisked away Imran Khan on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials who barged into a room of the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday. An anti-corruption court on Wednesday sent the 70-year-old former prime minister on an eight-day physical remand to the anti-corruption watchdog. Khan’s dramatic arrest on Tuesday sparked widespread violent protests across Pakistan, leaving at least eight people dead and nearly 300 others injured in clashes between protesters and law enforcement agencies and prompting the authorities to deploy the army in the country’s capital Islamabad, as well as in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces on Wednesday to maintain law and order. In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said strict action would be taken against “state’s enemies” as he slammed Khan’s PTI for violence that gripped the country after his arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. “The miscreants will be dealt with iron hands. They will be punished according to the law,” the prime minister said and urged PTI protesters to immediately stop “anti-state activities”. “They attacked sensitive property as if they were enemies. I have never seen such heartbreaking scenes…We will not allow anyone to conspire. We will not let their nefarious agenda succeed,” he said. (With inputs from PTI) Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.