Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday “advised” the PTI to “not make matters worse” and to call for an end to the violent protests in the country following the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

On Tuesday, the PTI chief was arrested in the Al-Qadir Trust Case from the premises of the Islamabad High Court. Shortly after, PTI supporters countrywide took to the streets in protest, resulting in clashes with law enforcement agencies. Since then, access to mobile internet services and social media platforms has also been restricted.

On Wednesday, at least eight people were killed and over 1,900 protesters were arrested across the country while the army was called in Islamabad, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to control the situation.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi today, Bilawal said, “The only advice I can give to the PTI is that what is done is done. The ones involved in this will have to answer for it […].

“Don’t make matters worse. Call for an end to violent protests, declare that you will abide by the rule of law and the Constitution, accept that you will engage with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as citizens and not as terrorists so that what is done is done, [and] you don’t create more difficulties for yourself.”

The minister also called on the PTI to try and understand the history of Pakistan. “You are not just doing this on Twitter and Facebook — we have our own context, we have lived more than half of our history under direct martial law.”

He said the onus was on the PTI to decide if they wanted to “remain a political party or not”. “They have to decide whether they want to do politics or take up an armed resistance against the state,” he added.

At the outset of his address, Bilawal said the PPP had never celebrated the arrest of any politician. However, he termed the allegations against Imran as “very serious” and asserted that the former premier had been arrested “in accordance with the law”.

Bilawal said that the PTI should have responded to the arrest by hailing Imran as “brave and confident” for facing the accusations. Instead, “PTI had already decided that its reaction would not be political and it would become a militant organisation,” he regretted.

The minister said that apart from the PTI, only the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had attacked the Pakistan Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

He went on to say that his mother, ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, never “picked up a single stone” to protest. Instead, he said, the party had always encouraged its workers to “raise a democratic voice”.

Bilawal went on to say that the courts took no action against the PTI for its past violent actions — citing the long march riots and the Zaman Park clashes as examples — which is why it believed its actions were not subject to the law.

Contending that the PTI had “crossed all red lines”, the foreign minister called on the courts to take action so that no other party could think of violating the law in the future.

However, responding to a reporter’s question, he asserted that he was the “last person” to be in favour of banning a political party.

“As a last resort, this option should be available but I am very reluctant to engage in this conversation […] Principally, naturally, instinctively, this path towards which you are pointing to would not be a good precedent and I hope we don’t have to go in that direction due to any event,” he added.

The minister noted that he did not see any reason for banning the PTI if they decided to “remain a political party and disowned those involved in terrorism”.

But “if they (the PTI) decide that they’re going to do an armed rebellion against the state then absolutely, there will be circumstances where we will be forced to ban such an organisation,” Bilawal said.

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Recalling the failed talks between the coalition government and the PTI, the PPP chairman highlighted he had been hopeful of them being successful. “Unfortunately, the actions of some institutions and some political parties made it very difficult for that process to go further.”

The minister also appreciated the Pakistan Army for showing “restraint” and not responding violently to the protesters. “I think that speaks of the different nature and the transition we’re in at the moment,” Bilawal said.

He concluded his address with the note: “I pray and will also try and hope from the [government] allies, but mostly from the PTI, that all our roles are such that elections are held and democracy — however much broken it is — continues.”