LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has cancelled the basic membership of all leaders and office-bearers who had quit the party during the past few days.
The most noteworthy PTI leaders to leave the party in the wake of the incident on May 9 were senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry, former federal ministers Shireen Mazari and Aamer Mehmood Kiani, and former PM Malik Amin Aslam adviser Malik Amin Aslam.
Asad Umar had resigned as secretary general and a member of the core committee but had remained a party member; it is unclear at this time whether the PTI leader has cancelled his membership.
Additionally, Mr. Khan commanded the expulsion of defections from the party’s central committee. They will be removed from PTI’s WhatsApp groups, and the references to the defectors will be changed on the social media profiles.
Separately, in a statement on Thursday, the PTI chairman said his party’s leaders and workers were “facing the full force of state terror”.
The statement was released to mark one year since the PTI workers clashed with the police during the long march towards Islamabad.
He said the events of May 25, 2022 “commenced our descent into fascism”.
Mr Khan recalled that while he was in power, the PDM parties — who were then in the opposition — held three long marches which “were allowed without any” hindrance by his government.
“[But] we faced the full force of state terror,” Mr Khan said as he recalled the crackdown on his party’s leadership before the march.
“Houses broken in the middle of the night and PTI office-bearers and workers kidnapped. And then whoever got to Islamabad faced tear gas, rubber bullets and police brutality,” he said in a tweet.
