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Pakistan Blocks Access to Capital for Khan Protestors
Confirmed
In Short: Authorities in Islamabad have blocked major access roads with double-stacked shipping containers to prevent the marchers from reaching the capital.
Supporters of Pakistan's jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan began a march from Peshawar to Islamabad on Sunday, demanding his release. Khan, who faces charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption, was first imprisoned in August 2023.
The march, originally scheduled for September 27, was postponed to allow for talks between the government and Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. However, these talks ended in deadlock.
Authorities in Islamabad have blocked major access roads with double-stacked shipping containers to prevent the marchers from reaching the capital. Police deployed 22,000 security personnel to lock down Islamabad, barring entry and exit from neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Khan’s party rules.
PTI chief minister Sohail Afridi said the march would go ahead despite the government's efforts to prevent it. He criticized the restrictions on commercial vehicles on the M-1 motorway linking Islamabad and Peshawar, and the M-2 motorway between Lahore and Islamabad.
The PTI has demanded that Khan be given an immediate medical examination and treatment. Khan's sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, told DW they have received little to no information about their father's health condition.
Khan's supporters have taken to the streets carrying red and green flags of his party. At least eight people died in the protests, and the army was called in to quell the violence.
The blocking of access routes has disrupted traffic and public transportation, leading to a pileup of shipping containers at Pakistan’s main port of Karachi as transporters avoid travelling north.
Consumer prices in Pakistan rose 10.26 percent in September from a year earlier, while the transport price index climbed 27.43 percent.
The PTI has also demanded the release of Khan’s three sisters, whose arrests last month further heightened tensions.
Amnesty International criticized the targeting of Khan’s family and PTI party activists, calling it a flagrant violation of their rights to liberty, freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.
What this adds
The blocking of access routes has caused significant disruption to freight movement and could bring supply chains to a halt.
Background
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan's jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan have started a long march to Islamabad, demanding his release, according to his party.
What's confirmed
- Khan said all the cases against him are politically motivated.
- T alks between Pakistan’s government and representatives of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party stalled Sunday, as supporters said they would proceed with a planned protest march.
- Khan, 73, has been imprisoned since August 2023 and faces dozens of charges ranging from corruption to treason and inciting violence following widespread anti-establishment riots in May 2023.
- Authorities in Pakistan’s capital blocked main access routes to the city with double-stacked shipping containers Thursday ahead of a weekend demonstration by supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
- Police deployed 22,000 security personnel to lock down Islamabad, officials told AFP, barring entry and exit to neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Khan’s party rules.
- “The targeting of Imran Khan’s family and PTI party activists is a flagrant violation of their rights to liberty, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” said Babu Ram Pant from Amnesty International.
- ISLAMABAD: Pakistani goods transporters warned on Thursday that road closures and vehicle seizures ahead of an opposition march on the capital were disrupting freight movement and could bring supply chains to a halt, as the government prepared contingency plans to keep fuel moving.
- Pakistan’s home, information, commerce and finance ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
- “The motorway is closed, and ordinary people are facing serious difficulties because of this situation,” 25-year-old school teacher Nayhmat Khan said.
- "Such actions speak to the severity of the current restrictions in Pakistan."
What's still developing
- The PTI said talks with government failed because authorities rejected the party's request for access to Khan so that its leaders could consult him on national and political issues.
- Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi meanwhile accused Afridi of "sabotaging" negotiations, saying the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had backed out of earlier commitments on counter-terrorism issues, according to Pakistan's local media reports.
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- Speaking to Geo TV, Abbas said negotiators were unable to resolve demands that included access to Khan by his doctor.
- He said further stages of the protest would be announced in Khairabad, without specifying when demonstrators could reach the capital.
- Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled in August that Khan should be transferred to a civilian hospital for treatment.
- Discontent over Khan’s imprisonment has increased in recent months, particularly over his medical treatment and access to him by doctors and family members.
- Muhammad Owais Chaudhry, president of the All Pakistan Goods Transport Owners Association, said transporters were avoiding sending vehicles to Islamabad, upper Punjab, KP and Kashmir because of vehicle seizures and restrictions on commercial traffic.
- Pakistan Railways told a meeting chaired by Malik it would make the maximum number of train wagons available to transport high-speed diesel if road movement was disrupted, with particular emphasis on maintaining supplies to KP.
- Pakistan State Oil said it had already positioned additional petroleum stocks at critical depots in anticipation of possible disruptions, while the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has established a control room to coordinate fuel supplies.
- The PTI's last large-scale protest two years ago ended in deadly clashes with security forces.
- Their reluctance is leaving containers to pile up at Pakistan’s main trade gateway of Karachi.