Defense Minister Khawaja Asif says Pakistan's government is mulling a ban on former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party, which he accused of attacking the basis of the state amid a deepening political crisis in the South Asian nuclear power.
Khan, a former cricket star, appeared to ease demands for early elections in a video address late on May 24 and said he is forming a committee for talks with the government to seek an end to the political standoff.
"If [the government tells] the committee that they have a solution and the country can be governed better without me, or [if] they tell the committee the holding of elections in October benefits Pakistan, I will step back,” Khan said in a video on his party's YouTube channel.
Khan's brief arrest earlier this month enraged his many supporters, who went on a rampage in several regions, clashing with security forces, attacking military installations, and burning down buildings housing state institutions.
Khan and the PTI have distanced themselves from the violence in which at least 10 people were killed.
Khan, who was targeted by multiple corruption cases, was arrested after being dragged out of a court in Islamabad on May 9, but was later released on Supreme Court orders and placed on bail.
He was toppled in a no-confidence vote in April last year. He has rejected the corruption cases as politically motivated.
His arrest came a day after he accused an army general of involvement in an assassination attempt against him last year in which he was wounded while leading an opposition march toward the capital, Islamabad.
Asif told media in Istanbul that "a decision has not been made yet, but a review is surely under way" regarding the banning of the PTI.
He said that by "attacking defense installations," PTI supporters attacked "the very basis of the state.... It can't be tolerated."
Meanwhile, Khan tweeted that PTI Vice President and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had been rearrested despite having been released on bail several days earlier.
Khan is due to address the nation at 7 p.m. (1400 GMT/UTC), the PTI's central information secretary told Pakistani media.