ISLAMABAD: Pakistan police raided the headquarters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party on Monday, a week after the military-backed government vowed to ban the political movement. An AFP journalist at the scene saw the headquarters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) sealed off by officers, who led a number of party workers into waiting vans.

The Interior Ministry said PTI's digital media wing was raided by Islamabad police who arrested Raoof Hasan, a founding member of the party and head of its press department. "PTI is involved in anti-state propaganda," the ministry accused in a statement without giving further details.

Party chairman Gohar Ali Khan, a barrister, said he accompanied Hasan to the police station, after local media and PTI initially reported that he had also been arrested. "I was there for Raoof Hassan, he is our senior and I had to be there for him," the MP told media. "We are always ready for an arrest," he added.

At least 10 members of PTI or their relatives have been rounded up in the past two months, Hasan told AFP on Saturday. He said they had "disappeared" with "no trace". "Seven of them are from my department alone, which they want to cripple because we refuse to stay silent," he said.

The government's information minister said last week it would ban PTI, just days after the Supreme Court made a crucial ruling in the party's favor that dealt a huge blow to the government. Khan has been jailed for nearly a year, but this month an Islamabad judge overturned his illegal marriage conviction while the Supreme Court awarded PTI more parliamentary seats — a move set to make them the largest party in the National Assembly.

Both cases were considered a major blow to the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who seized a parliamentary majority after February elections by forming a coalition. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the attempt to ban PTI "an enormous blow to democratic norms" and said it "reeks of political desperation". "If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarization and the strong likelihood of political chaos and violence," Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said in a statement.

Khan, who says the many cases against him have been orchestrated to prevent his return to power, remains languishing in jail on fresh charges of inciting protests and graft. A United Nations panel of experts found this month that Khan's detention "had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office". — AFP