Timeline: Pakistan's chequered history of banning political parties

For just over half of its 75 years of independence, Pakistan has seen multiple military-backed establishments in power, while its democratically-elected governments have struggled to finish their legitimate terms — being alternately dismissed by presidents or generals and now allied opposition parties.

Since March last year, the cash-strapped nation of over 220 million people is witnessing a political crisis that was never seen before. The tumult intensified last week when paramilitary forces, on the direction of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan — a move that sparked off countrywide protests.

Protesters clashed with different security agencies and riot police in several cities across Pakistan, including attacks directed at the military, they set fire to buildings across the country, including Radio Pakistan Peshawar, and Jinnah House Lahore (Corps Commander House).

The leaders of the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement(PDM) — an alliance of 13 political parties — started demanding action against the PTI after videos of sticks-wielding masked protesters raiding the army’s headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Following the post-Khan-arrest violence, rumours started doing rounds that the government was mulling banning the PTI — which stayed in power from August 2018 to April 2022 — however, the ruling alliance seems to be divided on whether to ban or not to ban the Khan-led party.

Pakistan has a long history of proscribing political parties deemed a threat to the state and it is now warning to bar one of the largest political parties, PTI.

Five political parties have been banned in Pakistan since 1954.

Communist Party of Pakistan

In July 1954, the Communist Party of Pakistan was barred to function on the charges of attempting to overthrow the government of then-prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951.

This allegedly former Soviet Union-backed unsuccessful plot, led by Major-General Akbar Khan, is known as the Rawalpindi conspiracy case.

General Akbar, his wife, poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, dozens of military officers and the Communist Party’s general secretary, Syed Sajjad Zaheer were arrested, tried and put behind bars.

Zaheer, a Marxist revolutionary, founded the Communist Party in Calcutta in March 1948. Soon after the ban was imposed, a crackdown was also launched against the party leadership and its workers as well as sympathisers.

Awami League

On March 26, 1971, the then president General Yahya Khan banned Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman’s Awami League.

The president, announcing the development, had stated: “Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s action of non-cooperation movement is an act of treason. He and his party have defied the lawful authority for over three weeks. They have insulted Pakistan’s flag and defiled the photograph of the Father of the Nation.

“They have tried to run a parallel government. They have created turmoil, terror and insecurity. A number of murders had been committed in the name of the movement. The armed forces, located in East Pakistan, have been subjected to taunts and insults of all kinds.”

National Awami Party

The Wali Khan faction of the National Awami Party (NAP) was formed after the 1967 split in the original NAP between Maulana Bhashani and Abdul Wali Khan. 

The Wali Khan faction was later named National Awami Party after the independence of Bangladesh (former East Pakistan).

The NAP was banned twice during its eight-year-long existence, the first time under Yahya Khan's government in 1971 and the second time in 1975 by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government. 

It was then resurrected under the name National Democratic Party, from which it was renamed as Awami National Party.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Arisar

In May 2020, the Ministry of Interior outlawed the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Arisar (JSQM-A), a party based in Sindh, along with two allegedly militant groups — the Sindhudesh Liberation Army and the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army — citing "reasonable grounds" that the organisations were involved in terrorism.

The JSQM-A was well-known for criticising China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan

The Government of Punjab, on April 15, 2021, banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) after violent protests erupted that claimed the lives of a few policemen.

The provincial government had requested the ban and the summary, after being approved by the federal cabinet, had resulted in the prohibition under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

TLP filed a review petition on April 29, 2021, for the removal of the ban. It should, however, be noted that despite the ban, the party was allowed to continue to take part in elections, as it was not delisted by the ECP.

The banned outfit again held its protests in October 2021, following which the government agreed to lift the ban on the party on November 7 of the same year and released its detained chief Saad Rizvi, on November 18.