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After skirmishes with police outside parliament the previous evening, Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan halted a protest march by supporters on Thursday, but he threatened that they would return unless an election was scheduled within six days.
Khan has claimed that the confidence vote that deposed him and ushered in Prime Minister Shabhaz Sharif’s coalition government last month was the result of a U.S. plot, and he is demanding a new election to demonstrate that he has national support.
امپورٹڈ حکومت کو میں 6 دن کا وقت دیتا ہوں, ان چھ دنوں میں اسمبلیاں تحلیل کرکے انتخابات کا اعلان کریں ورنہ میں پھر بیس لاکھ لوگوں کے ساتھ دوبارہ اسلام آباد میں داخل ہوجاؤں گا انشاءاللّہ- @ImranKhanPTI #SaluteToMarchers #حقیقی_آزادی_مارچ pic.twitter.com/z9Gu0kBbn6
— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 26, 2022
“I’ll give you six days to do your task. Elections would be held in six days, according to your announcement “After Khan and hundreds of his followers arrived in Islamabad, he stated from atop a truck that the parliament should be dissolved and new elections held in June.
He told the authorities that if the demands were not met, he would march on the capital again.
Khan had gathered tens of thousands of followers in Islamabad, with preparations to seize a strategic area of the city until Sharif agreed to hold new elections.
Late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court ordered the government to remove all police blockades from city entry and exit routes, as well as provide Khan’s supporters with a particular free space to stage their rally.
However, the demonstrators disobeyed the court’s orders and marched into the centre of the capital, where they engaged in a series of gun engagements with police for many hours before Khan and the rest of the gathering arrived.
As the protest march moved up the main thoroughfare of the city leading to parliament, police fired tear gas and baton charges into the front, arresting hundreds of protestors who had set fire to trees, automobiles, stores, and a bus station.
After dozens of protestors broke through the last security defence line to reach just outside the parliament, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb reported at least 18 police and paramilitary forces were wounded.
Conflicts also erupted in Punjab province’s several cities, as well as Karachi, Pakistan’s southern port city.
Khan’s march has been declared illegal by the administration, which accuses him of violating the law.
He has been accused of attempting to gather protesters to Islamabad “naughty
intentions”.
On Thursday, police began removing the shipping containers that had been blocking the capital’s key roads in and out.
Officials reported that roads leading to key civic landmarks, government institutions, and diplomatic embassies had also been closed.
Barriers had also been erected at all main entry and departure points in Punjab, as well as along the Grant Trunk Road, which connects the province’s core with northwest Pakistan.
