May 25. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The secretary general of the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), Asad Umar, has announced his resignation after nearly a year and a half in office, amid a wave of departures from the party following violent protests. Following the arrest on the 9th of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“Given the current situation (…) after May 9, it is not possible for me to continue carrying out my tasks at the head of the party,” he indicated. “I resign as general secretary of the PTI and as a member of its central committee,” he added, as reported by the Pakistani television network Geo TV.
“One of the reasons (…) is that I am honest and I cannot make personal statements if I am in office,” he said, after a court ordered his release on Wednesday and demanded a commitment that he would not participate in violent protests.
Umar was arrested on May 10 along with other senior PTI officials following the outbreak of riots over Jan’s arrest in the framework of an alleged corruption case. The former prime minister was released days later, following a Supreme Court ruling that his arrest had been “unlawful.”
The riots unleashed after Jan’s arrest, which included attacks on military installations, have sparked widespread criticism of the opposition party, which several senior officials have left in recent days, including Fauad Chaudry and Shirín Mazari, who were vice-presidents of the party.
Indeed, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Jauaja Asif said on Wednesday that the government is considering banning the party. “A decision has not yet been taken, but there is a review underway,” he said, before criticizing that “until now, (Jan) has not clearly condemned (the cases of violence).”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that the events of May 9 are “an indication of a terrorist and anti-Pakistani agenda.” “I trust that the law will follow its course and that all those involved in these terrorist acts will be brought to justice so that these acts are not repeated until the end of the world,” he concluded.
The former prime minister was dismissed after a motion of no confidence in Parliament, approved after the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the then prime minister to dissolve Parliament and announce early elections after the refusal of the presidency of the legislative body to hold the vote In the first instance. In November, he was shot after being shot during a protest against the new government.
