The candidacy of jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and most of his supporters in February's general election has been rejected, his party officials said on Sunday.
Imran Khan – detained since August – claims the military has worked with those in power for years to crush his populist movement and prevent him from running in elections as a leader of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
“The nominations of almost all national and provincial PTI leaders, including Imran Khan, have been rejected,” party spokesperson Raoof Hasan said after nominations for the poll were closed.
“90 to 95% of our candidates' applications were rejected,” the official told AFP, denouncing a strategy aimed at deterring PTI candidates from running in the elections.
“All tactics will be used for this purpose, but under no circumstances will we leave the political field and boycott the elections,” he said.
An election commission official told AFP that several candidatures of PTI members had been rejected due to court rulings, including that of Imran Khan.
The commission must announce the final list of candidates on January 23rd. The PTI's protests against the exclusion of many of its members from the electoral process are likely to result in legal action or before the Election Commission.
“We will participate in the elections and appeal against all these decisions in every constituency and use all our constitutional, legal and political options,” Mr Hasan said.
Imran Khan, 71, was ousted last year after falling out with Pakistan's powerful military leaders who brought him to power in 2018.
In contrast, he waged an unprecedented campaign against the military, which ruled the country directly for much of its history.
He accused them of causing his loss of power through a vote of no confidence as part of a US-backed conspiracy and of instigating an assassination attempt against him in which he was injured.
Following unrest following his imprisonment in May, there was massive repression against the PTI, with its leaders imprisoned or forced to quit the party.