ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday denounced calls for a civil disobedience movement by jailed former premier Imran Khan, describing the move as being “antagonistic” towards the country’s interests at a time it was heading towards economic recovery.

On Dec. 5, Khan, jailed since August 2023 on charges he says are politically motivated to keep him away from power, said in a message to supporters that he was setting up a five-member negotiations committee to hold talks with the federal government for the release of political prisoners. He also demanded judicial commissions to investigate protests on May 9 last year and Nov. 24 this year in which the government says supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party partook in violence and caused vandalism. If the two demands were not met, Khan said, the party would launch a civil disobedience movement from Dec. 14.

“Economic stability is linked with political stability and vice versa but unfortunately, there is another attempt which they [PTI] call civil disobedience,” Sharif said in an address to his cabinet. “What could be more antagonistic towards Pakistan than this?”

Pressure on the PTI, at loggerheads with the government and military for months, has increased since last month, when thousands of the party’s supporters stormed Islamabad, demanding Khan’s release from prison. The government says protesters killed four security officers in clashes while the PTI says at least 12 of its supporters died and "hundreds" were injured as security agencies used live ammunition rounds to disperse protesters, which authorities deny.

PTI leaders have described last month’s raid on their protest site as a “massacre,” with social media platforms awash with pictures and video footage that the government has called “fake propaganda” by PTI followers. The government also says there were no civilian casualties. The army was deployed by the government during the raid to disperse protesters, but authorities say only police and paramilitary troops participated while the military acted as a "third line of defense."

In the aftermath of the protests, the Sharif coalition government formed two task forces: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government describes as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.

In a strongly worded statement released last week, the Pakistan army also called on the government to take action against the rioters as well as those who had launched “fake” online campaigns against the state and its security agencies. 

“Those who made a foul attempt to attack Islamabad and caused vandalism, I have issued a clear instruction that those who are involved in this conspiracy against Pakistan, with evidence, won’t be spared under any circumstances,” Sharif said at Tuesday’s cabinet address.

“But if someone is innocent, no one is going to touch him.”

Khan, who remains a popular figure in Pakistan despite being in prison and facing several court cases, has led a campaign of unprecedented defiance against the PM Sharif ruling coalition and the all-powerful military, which he accuses of being behind his ouster from office in 2022. The army denies it interferes in politics.