Zürcher Nachrichten - Pakistan blocks roads around capital ahead of planned pro-Khan protest

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.

Key highways, entry points, and major intersections were obstructed, completely severing transport links and bringing movement to a virtual standstill.

Cars could be seen stuck in traffic jams, with motorbike riders squeezing in and out of gaps between containers

AFP journalists saw the toll plaza for the Islamabad-Peshawar highway on the outskirts of the capital completely cut off on Thursday afternoon, with barriers and containers blocking the major road.

"The motorway is closed, and ordinary people are facing serious difficulties because of this situation," 25-year-old schoolteacher Nayhmat Khan said.

"Poor people depend on daily wages to earn a living, and with the current inflation, life has already become extremely difficult for them," he told AFP.

- ' Flagrant violation' -

The government's preemptive crackdown ahead of Sunday's planned protest intensified earlier this week with the detention of Khan's sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan, and Noreen Niazi under Punjab's Maintenance of Public Order ordinance.

The preventive 30-day detention orders issued by authorities accused them of "mobilising supporters via social media and incitement against state institutions", according to an order seen by AFP journalists.

Dozens of lawmakers, regional leaders, and opposition activists affiliated with Imran Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), were also rounded up across multiple districts in Punjab province and the capital, Islamabad.

PTI's information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said "almost 1,500" party activists had been detained.

International human rights watchdogs have repeatedly expressed concern over increasing press censorship, mass arrests, and restrictions on fundamental freedoms in Pakistan amid the ongoing political impasse.

"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.

"Such actions speak to the severity of the current restrictions in Pakistan."

Khan, a 73-year-old former cricket star, has been behind bars since August 2023 and faces scores of charges ranging from corruption to treason and inciting violence following widespread anti-establishment riots in May 2023.

He and his legal team reject the allegations, branding them as politically motivated cases aimed at neutralising his popularity.

He received medical treatment this year, with his family and lawyer saying that he had lost most of the vision in his right eye.

Once backed by the country's powerful military establishment during his rise to power, Khan fell out over key appointments and foreign policy before being ousted in a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April 2022.

He has publicly accused the military leadership, including Army Chief General Asim Munir, of orchestrating his removal and running a sustained campaign of political victimisation.

- 'We are common citizens' -

The capital march represents PTI's first major street push in months to press for Khan's release.

Pakistan's Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, denied the city was being put under lockdown.

"They do not have to come to Islamabad," Tarar told a press conference in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "No one will be allowed to shut down the city."

A parallel demonstration originally planned by the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and farmers' union leaders over soaring inflation and petroleum levies was suspended following a call with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's administration, leaving Khan's party to march alone.

J.Hasler--NZN