February 08, 2008	Friday	Muharram 29, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 7: Imran Khan, cricketing hero and the chief of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI), was prevented from entering the city for the second time in less than five months on Thursday as the authorities accused him of being a “source of a law and order situation” and bundled him off to Islamabad hours after he landed at the Jinnah Terminal of Quaid-i-Azam International Airport. Dozens of PTI workers, who had gathered outside the airport to welcome their leader, shouted anti-government slogans after security officials served on Mr Khan a notice to fly to Islamabad as he disembarked from a Quetta-Karachi flight.

Sources in the Sindh government told Dawn that Mr Khan was expelled under Section 5(1)(a) and (c) of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance which prevented the former cricketer from entering Sindh for one month.

The source admitted, however, that there had been a lack of communication between the provincial governments of Sindh and Balochistan, since the latter had allowed Mr Khan to take off from Quetta in ignorance of the fact that his entry into Sindh had been banned by the government.

Explaining the action, a senior official said that Mr Khan had been scheduled to address the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) during his three-day visit to Sindh, which could not be allowed because any person attempting to join the lawyers’ movement just days before the general elections would be treated as a threat to the law and order situation of the area concerned.

“He was also due to address public meetings of the All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) in Hyderabad and Karachi,” added Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ali Khan. “The APDM has not been given permission to hold such processions or meetings so participation in such gatherings would not be a legal or a wise move.”

Mr Khan maintained that although the majority of the country’s political parties were poised to contest the Feb 18 polls, the APDM had announced a boycott and, therefore, its argument for holding public gatherings and processions was not justified.

“We respect the political parties and their leaders but sometimes you need to prioritise your actions in the name of the national interest,” explained the home secretary. “The order against Imran Khan was part of that strategy.”

‘Musharraf’s personal judges’

Thursday’s deportation was the second time in five months when the cricketer-turned-politician was denied the right to enter Karachi after landing at the airport.

In September last year, the elected Sindh government refused to let Mr Khan enter the city on the grounds that his political engagements may have caused traffic problems. The PTI chief had been scheduled to address the legal fraternity amid the vociferous lawyers’ movement for the restoration of the deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

Although a caretaker set-up has now taken charge after the dissolution of the elected assemblies in November 2007, opposition parties see the caretaker government as an extension of the earlier government and accuse it of suppressing their political rights.

“How can you ban any politician from entering Sindh or any other part of his own country?” asked Mr Khan after landing in Islamabad. “Musharraf and his men – regardless of whether they were from the earlier government or from this caretaker set-up – have a history of violating the Constitution. They did it again by preventing me from addressing the people.”

Mr Khan pointed out that during 2007, he was twice prevented from entering Sindh on illogical grounds but he had approached the courts to challenge the provincial government’s actions. This time, he said, that option was not available since the majority of the high court judges had been deposed through the Provisional Constitution Order issued in November by President Pervez Musharraf acting as the chief of army staff.

“Now they are all Musharraf’s personal judges and I don’t pin any hope on getting any justice from such people,” rued Mr Khan. “So I am not going to challenge the Sindh government’s move before any court.”