Imran Khan barred from Karachi

IMRAN Khan, leader of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf - Movement for Justice - was prevented from entering Karachi - for the second time in five months - as he arrived in the city to address the Karachi Bar Association (KBA).

Imran, a cricketer-turned-politician, was served an expulsion notice upon arrival in Karachi from Quetta and was flown to Islamabad instead, leaving dozens of PTI followers shouting anti-government slogans outside Karachi airport.

Citing his planned address to the KBA as the reason behind his expulsion, government officials stated that anyone attempting to join the lawyers' movement with the general elections looming would be treated as a threat to the law and order situation.

"He was also due to address public meetings of the All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) in Hyderabad and Karachi," Arif Ali Khan, the Sindh home secretary, said. "Since the APDM had announced an election boycott, they have not been given permission to hold such processions or meetings so participation in such gatherings would not be a legal or a wise move.

"We respect the political parties and their leaders but sometimes you need to prioritise your actions in the name of the national interest," the home secretary added. "The order against Imran Khan was part of that strategy."

Imran, who refused to fight the government orders in court, said: "Musharraf and his men - regardless of whether they were from the earlier government or from this caretaker set-up - have a history of violating the constitution.

"They did it again by preventing me from addressing the people and they [the newly-appointed judges] are all Musharraf's personal judges and I don't pin any hope on getting any justice from such people. So I am not going to challenge the Sindh government's move before any court."

Speaking at the seminar in Quetta prior to his departure for Karachi, Imran had blamed the lack of provincial autonomy and the absence of an independent judiciary as the reasons behind the country's instability.

Last September, the elected Sindh government barred Imran's entry into Karachi citing his political engagements as a possible cause for traffic problems.


The PTI chief had been scheduled to address a group of lawyers in support of the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

© Faras Ghani 2008
Published in Asian News Feb 11, 2008