The party of jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan said Tuesday it will boycott most upcoming by-elections and resign from all parliamentary committees, intensifying its standoff with the government.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party announced the decisions after its political committee held a late-night meeting, which focused on Khan’s instructions from prison.
In a statement, the committee thanked Khan for expressing confidence in its members and giving them responsibility for managing the party’s political affairs.
The committee said PTI would not participate in by-elections in constituencies where party lawmakers lost their seats following convictions linked to violent protests on May 9, 2023.
It described those lawmakers as “true representatives” who were unjustly punished. But PTI will contest one race in Lahore — the NA-129 constituency — where the seat was left vacant after the death of lawmaker Mian Azhar.
The party also raised objections to the daily hearings of Khan’s ongoing corruption trial in Adiala Jail near Rawalpindi. It argued that the pace of proceedings violates the rights of the accused and undermines due process.
PTI further announced that its lawmakers will resign from the Public Accounts Committee and all other parliamentary standing committees, in line with Khan’s directive from jail.
Khan, ousted in a 2022 no-confidence vote and jailed since August 2023 on multiple charges, made his instructions known earlier Tuesday through his sister, Aleema Khan.
Speaking outside Adiala Jail after meeting him for the first time in four months, she said her brother was in good health but experiencing pressure in one eye. The family plans to seek a medical examination by doctors from a major Islamabad hospital.
During his meeting with lawyers and party leaders, Khan criticized Pakistan’s judiciary, accusing it of targeting political opponents under terrorism charges.
The former prime minister denounced a military operation in the northwestern Waziristan region, saying it would fuel instability, and criticized the forced expulsion of Afghan refugees as contrary to Islamic values. He also linked recent flooding in northern Pakistan’s Buner district to weak environmental policies, promoting his government’s previous “Billion Tree Project” as a model for resilience.
Khan reaffirmed his order for PTI to boycott by-elections, saying participation would only legitimize what he called a rigged system. He also rejected the resignation of senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja, confirming him as PTI’s secretary general.
Meanwhile, a special court hearing the Toshakhana-II case against Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, instructed prison officials to allow full legal and family access during in-prison proceedings. Aleema Khan described the day’s courtroom atmosphere as positive and said her brother “will not bow down, and he will not make any deal.”
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