Imran Khan supporters protest across Pakistan despite ban, arrests

By Ismail Dilawar and Kamran Haider

 

Pakistan’s authorities have arrested dozens of supporters of incarcerated leader Imran Khan and blocked highways after the opposition political party has come out on the streets nationwide to converge in the capital Islamabad. 

 

The government has also suspended cellular services in some areas while the police has imposed a law that prohibits public gathering of more than five people in Islamabad, according to statements by the government on X and the police. A court last week barred the party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from holding the planned rally in Islamabad on the eve of an official visit by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.

 

The jailed leader called on supporters to protest until Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government agreed to release jailed party leaders and reverse a new law that gives the government permission to interfere in judicial affairs.  

 

The fresh protest is seen as the biggest by the opposition group since Sharif’s coalition government took power after national elections in February. The premier has said such protests serve as a distraction to his government that is confronted with a critical task of reforming the country’s weak economy by taking difficult decisions under the International Monetary Fund’s loan program. Those include taxing the agriculture and retail sectors that have resisted attempts in the past.

 

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More than 50 members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have been arrested in Pakistan, said Zulfi Bukhari, a spokesperson for Khan’s party. The party is also staging protests in London, Paris and other cities. 

 

“We don’t want to crush a peaceful protest but we cannot allow violence and disruption in the capital,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters earlier this week. The police had prepared for the protest by bringing shipping containers into the city to block major entry points and roads. 

 

Khan gave the protest call after repeated court orders granted him bail in different cases or suspending his conviction but he failed to secure his freedom. Each time the court has ordered his release, the government arrested him in a different case to keep him in jail, where he is languishing for more than a year. The politician is facing over 150 cases from corruption to inciting violence and misuse of power when he was the premier.