Pakistan Says It Will Ban Party of Jailed Former Leader Imran Khan

Pakistan’s government plans to ban the party of the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, officials said on Monday, a decision expected to exacerbate the political turmoil that has consumed the country for the past two years.

The country’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the government was moving to outlaw Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., after actions that had posed “a direct threat to the fabric of our nation.”

But analysts said the decision — which few expect to be upheld in court — reflected growing desperation by the Pakistani government. It has struggled to assert its authority after an election this year in which the country’s powerful military was accused of rigging dozens of races against the broadly popular P.T.I.

“If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarization and the strong likelihood of political chaos and violence,” Asad Iqbal Butt, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said in a statement.

The government’s announcement came days after Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that P.T.I. was entitled to 23 unelected seats in Parliament reserved for women and minorities. That decision stripped the governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of its two-thirds majority in Parliament, weakening an already fragile government that lacks mass popular support.

P.T.I., which won more seats than any other party in the election despite a crackdown on its candidates and supporters, has become a seemingly unstoppable force since Mr. Khan fell out with the military and was ousted in a vote of no confidence in 2022.