Event Summary
The conviction of 108 members of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) by an anti-terrorism court in Faisalabad on July 31, 2025, marks one of the most significant judicial actions against a political party in Pakistan’s recent history. These individuals were found guilty in connection with the May 9, 2023 riots, which broke out nationwide after Khan was arrested on corruption charges. While the protests began as peaceful demonstrations, they quickly escalated into violence, with attacks on military and government buildings, including the Lahore Corps Commander House, triggering a massive security response. The state accused PTI of orchestrating the violence and used anti-terrorism laws to pursue hundreds of its members. The court’s decision handed 10-year sentences to top leaders like Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz, while others received sentences ranging from one to three years.
This mass sentencing has deepened Pakistan’s political crisis, especially since it comes at a time when PTI has been under consistent pressure from both the judiciary and the military establishment. Despite winning the most seats in the February 2024 general elections, PTI was blocked from forming a government, which many observers attribute to backchannel interference by the establishment. Since then, the party has been subjected to what it calls a “legal onslaught,” with its workers and leaders facing arrests, disqualifications, asset seizures, and travel bans. The timing of this verdict just days ahead of the August 5 protest movement, marking two years since Khan’s detention, is widely seen as an attempt to preempt public mobilization and demoralize party supporters by removing key leadership from the political arena. Despite the July 31 convictions and a ban on public gatherings under Section 144, PTI supporters staged rallies in major cities including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Islamabad. Police responded with baton charges and tear gas, detaining more than 240 activists nationwide, with over 200 arrests reported in Lahore alone.
Human rights organizations have raised serious concerns about the fairness of the trial process against the 108 PTI members, citing closed hearings, limited access to legal counsel, and the use of military and anti-terror courts to try civilians. The application of anti-terrorism laws to political protests is being condemned as a dangerous precedent that criminalizes dissent and could be used against other opposition voices in the future. Civil society actors also worry that this strategy is contributing to a larger trend of democratic backsliding, where courts and security agencies are increasingly used as tools of political engineering rather than neutral institutions.
The PTI leadership has vowed to appeal the verdicts, while also calling for peaceful resistance and parliamentary protests. However, given the shrinking space for protest, speech, and association, the options for political expression are rapidly narrowing. These mass convictions may have an immediate chilling effect on political activity, but they are also likely to fuel long-term instability, resentment, and further erosion of public trust in democratic institutions especially among the youth and urban middle class that form the PTI’s core support base. This moment is emblematic of Pakistan’s current struggle between authoritarian control and democratic resistance, with the judiciary now positioned at the heart of that conflict.