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The Pakistan government has announced plans to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, citing alleged anti-state activities.  

The announcement by Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Monday came days after the Supreme Court handed a major legal victory to the PTI by declaring it eligible for a share of seats reserved in national and provincial assemblies.

The PTI has responded sharply, urging the government to “not shake the foundations of Pakistan and stop playing with the constitution.” Seventy-one-year-old Khan has been behind bars in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, following his arrest on May 9, 2023.

Here’s what has happened so far:

1. What did the Pakistan minister announce?

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar made the announcement at a press conference in Islamabad. He stated that the federal government intends to ban the PTI for its alleged involvement in anti-state activities and to charge Khan and two senior party colleagues with treason. “In view of the foreign funding case, May 9 riots, and the cipher episode as well as the resolution passed in the US, we believe that there is very credible evidence present to have Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), banned,” Tarar said.

He emphasized that Pakistan cannot progress with the PTI’s existence, saying, “Our patience and tolerance are considered as our weaknesses. The PTI and Pakistan cannot co-exist as the government is trying to stabilize the country politically and economically, while efforts are being made to thwart its efforts.” Tarar added that the federal government would petition the Supreme Court to ban the party.

2. How has the PTI responded?

In response to the government’s move, the PTI warned that banning the party could “uproot the foundations of the country.” The party stated on the X platform, “No patriot can think of banning the largest and most popular party of Pakistan, doing so is tantamount to uprooting the foundations of Pakistan and sending the country towards civil war.”

3. Why has the Pakistan government taken this decision?

The government’s decision follows recent relief given to the PTI by the Supreme Court in the case of reserved seats and to Khan in the illegal marriage case. Last week, the Supreme Court declared that Khan’s PTI was eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies. If allotted, the PTI would become the largest party in the National Assembly with 109 seats.

Additionally, on Saturday, a district and session court overturned the conviction of Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in a case related to the violation of the mandatory waiting period for a Muslim woman between two marriages.

4. What steps will the PML-Nawaz-led government take against the SC order?

Tarar announced that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government and its coalition partners plan to file a review appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision granting reserved seats to the PTI. “The apex court gave relief to the PTI which had not even asked for it,” Tarar said.

The government is also taking action against individuals involved in the May 9 events and PTI leaders’ attempts to sabotage Pakistan’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Referring to the dissolution of assemblies during the no-confidence motion against Khan in 2022, Tarar indicated plans to move a case against the then-prime minister, then-president Alvi, and then National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri.

Bengaluru: Search and rescue operations resumed on Wednesday morning in Shirur village in Uttara Kannada district, where a massive landslide claimed the lives of four people a day ago.

Vehicular traffic has been temporarily suspended on National Highway 66, where the incident occurred, officials said.

After an intensive rescue and search operation by the local police, a team of National Disaster Response Force, fire and emergency services and officials of other agencies amid rains, four bodies were recovered by Tuesday evening.

"So, far four bodies have been recovered and identified. Restoration and search operations have resumed early morning today," a senior police official said.

Among the four dead were members of the same family, who ran an eatery along the national highway.

Following the incident, the state government had said that three gas tankers had pulled up at the eatery for a tea break when mud and rocks plunged down the hill.

The landslip triggered by incessant rains also swept away two of the three tankers into the Gangavali river flowing on the other side of the road.

According to state government, the National Highways Authority of India while building National Highway 66 "cut the hill steep instead of a 45-degree slope resulting in the accident.

Meanwhile, vehicular movement has been banned till July 22 in Seethalayanagiri-Mullayanagiri area of Chikkamagaluru taluk due to collapse of hills and severe damage to the road surface owing to heavy rains.

More than 9,000 students have been killed and more than 15,000 others wounded in the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, reports the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency, citing the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, reported on Tuesday that a total of 9,241 students had been killed and 15,182 injured since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on October 7, 2023.

The Ministry reported that over 9,138 students were killed in the Gaza Strip, while 14,671 others were injured there.

With Gaza's education system decimated, some 620,000 school-age Palestinians are out of school and more than 88,000 students are unable to enroll in universities, according to the ministry.

In West Bank, 103 students were killed, 505 injured and around 357 students were detained during the nine months of war.

The report also indicated that a total of 497 teachers and administrators have been reported killed, with 3,426 others injured in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

In the Gaza Strip, a total of 353 educational institutions, including government schools, universities, university buildings, and 65 belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), were targeted in bombings and acts of vandalism.

Out of these buildings, 139 suffered severe damage, 93 were completely destroyed, and 133 government schools in the Gaza Strip were repurposed as shelter centers, according to the report.

In the West Bank, 69 schools and five universities have been attacked and vandalized.

The bloodshed in Gaza’s schools-turned-shelters, which Israel alleges are used by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas as hiding spots, has been a recurring scene throughout the war.

Only in the past 10 days, five UN-run schools have been hit by Israel forces, UNRWA posted on social X platform.

UNRWA in its recent report said that its facilities in Gaza had been attacked by Israel 453 times since the war began last October, and that more than 500 people sheltering in its buildings had been killed. The UN has also said that 80 percent of schools in the territory have been destroyed or damaged.

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, has recently described the number of wounded children as “staggering” in Gaza.

Israel’s war has killed at least 38,713 people, including nearly 16,000 children, in Gaza since early October last year. Tens of thousands have also been wounded.

Some 21,000 children are also missing while 17,000 have been orphaned.