Pakistan government bans Pashtun ethnic party
- In Reports
- 07:48 PM, Oct 07, 2024
- Myind Staff
The government of Pakistan on Sunday banned the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a group advocating for Pashtun rights, stating that it poses a threat to national security.
"The federal government having reasons to believe that the PTM is engaged in certain activities prejudicial to peace and security of the country [...] is pleased to list the PTM in the First Schedule as a proscribed organisation," said a notification by the Ministry of Interior.
The ethnic Pushtu-speaking activists are active in the tribal area of the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and they have strong opinions about the army. The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, Section 11B, has imposed the ban on the group. The group, headed by Manzoor Pashteen, had been around for a while and its leaders had been holding the military accountable for the issues the tribal area along the Afghan border was facing.
In May 2014, a group of students founded the PTM as the Mahsud Tahafuz Movement with the goal of removing landmines from Waziristan and other tribal areas. After rebranding as the PTM, the group gained notoriety in January 2018 for its efforts to bring justice to the family of fellow Pashtun Naqeebullah Mehsud, who was killed in Karachi by police in what was purported to be a staged encounter.
Authorities in Pakistan have claimed that the group was acting as a pawn for anti-state actors working both domestically and internationally, particularly in Afghanistan. The PTM, however, consistently disregarded these accusations. PTM chief Pashteen was taken into custody in December of last year after it was reported that his security guards had opened fire on the police.
A petition for the party's prohibition was submitted to the Islamabad High Court in 2019. The plea was submitted the day following a fight between security personnel and PTM demonstrators in North Waziristan that left three people dead and five soldiers injured. After criticising the nation's armed forces in a speech at the Asma Jahangir Conference in 2022, Pashteen was charged with terrorism.
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