ISLAMABAD: The federal government took away the foreign passports of nine Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders. It also included former Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid, on Saturday. This is because the party led by Imran Khan is under close watch after the May 9 protests.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Azam Swati, Pervaiz Khattak, Ali Amin Gandapur, Farrukh Habib, Aun Abbas, Zartaj Gul, and Ali Muhammad Khan are all PTI leaders who can no longer use their foreign passports.
The government has started to crack down on the PTI. Several of its leaders and hundreds of its followers have been arrested. It is because of the violence and arson that happened on May 9 after party chairman Imran Khan was arrested.
During the protests, people from his party destroyed military buildings, such as the Lahore Corps Commander’s House. This strongly condemned by both military and civilian leaders.
Imran Khan and several other party leaders told they couldn’t leave the country.
Reports say that the names of more than 600 PTI figures added to a list of people who can’t fly. These people include former first lady Bushra Bibi, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, Murad Saeed, and Hammad Azhar.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) put their names on the provincial national identification list (PNIL) to put more pressure on the party run by Imran Khan because of the vandalism.
Reports also said that several PTI leaders tried to leave the country in the past three days, but the authorities stopped them at the airports.