Pakistan prepares for protests by former PM's supporters

Pakistani authorities have begun closing major roads leading to Islamabad as supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan prepare to march on the capital, demanding his release.

Islamabad police said the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway, the Islamabad-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway and the Grand Trunk Road would be closed at several points from the evening onwards, Caliber.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.

Authorities urged the public to plan their journeys accordingly.

Dawn, a leading Pakistani newspaper, reported that the closures were indefinite and intended to prevent supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from marching on the capital on September 27.

The protesters are demanding the release of Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023 following a series of convictions that his party has described as politically motivated. All but one of those convictions have since been suspended or overturned on appeal.

Concerns over Khan’s health, particularly the condition of his right eye, which has required months of specialist treatment, have also fuelled the PTI’s campaign for his release.

The planned marches were expected to head towards Islamabad from Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, around 1,150km (715 miles) to the southwest, and from Lahore, about 270km (170 miles) to the southeast.

Authorities have positioned around 2,000 shipping containers around Islamabad and at Attock Bridge, a key crossing from the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dawn reported. Containers and sandbags have also been deployed at Haroon Bridge, another major crossing between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Nearly 30,000 security personnel have reportedly been deployed in Attock district.

Al Jazeera correspondent Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the government had urged “the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to reconsider its plans”.

“But the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, on the other hand, says peaceful protest is their constitutional right; they want the release of their leader Imran Khan from jail, and they say they’re doing this in order to uphold the constitution.”

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned the PTI against holding the protest on September 21, saying: “We have clearly told them that they can never achieve anything through such drama.” He added: “I will say again that there is still time; they should not go into this situation.”

On September 20, police arrested Khan’s sister Aleema Khan at her home in Lahore under a public order law

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov