- Thousands of Imran Khan supporters march on Islamabad
- Government vows to keep marchers out of the capital
- Talks between PTI and government collapsed at the weekend
- Khan, 74, has been in jail since 2023
THOUSANDS of supporters of Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan have begun a long march to Islamabad to demand his release, his party said on Monday, setting up a fresh confrontation with the government.
The march began on Sunday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the north-western province governed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, with several stops planned before it reaches the capital.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, who is leading the march, urged people to join.
Imran Khan Sons Raise Alarm Over His Prison Treatment
"I call upon you all to come out, the youngsters to come out for the sake of your leader who is sitting in jail," he said.
Government vows to stop marchers
The government has said it will not allow the marchers to enter Islamabad.
"We will finish it once for all," Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said, adding that the party could not be allowed to disrupt business in the capital at will.
Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in and around the city. Shipping containers have been placed to barricade the government district, which is home to parliament, the prime minister's residence and foreign embassies.
The PTI's last large-scale protest, two years ago, ended in deadly clashes with security forces.
Talks collapse
The march was originally scheduled for September 27. It was delayed after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government offered negotiations over the party's demands, but those talks fell apart over the weekend.
Naqvi, who represented the government in the talks, said they collapsed because the PTI refused to cooperate on a counter-terrorism policy to tackle rising militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. The region has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent months.
Imran Khan supporters protest across Pakistan
The PTI rejected that explanation, saying the government had tried to pressure the party into unfair concessions.
Naqvi and other ministers have suggested that the PTI-led provincial government could be removed through legal and constitutional means if it fails to follow a state-backed counter-terrorism policy.
A long-running rift
Khan, 74, a former cricket star, was removed from office by parliament in 2022. He blamed the military for his ouster, a charge the army denies.
The rift deepened after his arrest in May 2023 sparked riots in which his supporters attacked military installations. Thousands of PTI supporters were detained in the crackdown that followed, and dozens of people were later sentenced by military courts.
Khan has described himself as a political prisoner. Before his arrest, he had fallen out with the military, which analysts see as the ultimate arbiter of politics in the nuclear-armed country.
The military and the government deny that he is a political prisoner and point to the independence of Pakistan's judiciary.
Khan was convicted in several trials. All but one of those convictions have since been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending.
(With inputs from agencies)
