Thousands protest in Pakistan to demand ex-PM Imran Khan’s release

Imran Khan’s supporters rally on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad [W K Yousufzai/AP]

Islamabad, September 9 — Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Pakistani capital, demanding the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been behind bars for more than a year on what his party calls are politically motivated charges.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party organised the rally in Islamabad on Sunday, marking its first show of strength since the disputed national and regional elections in February.

Images and videos posted on the social media platform X showed Khan’s supporters marching towards the capital from various parts of the country.

“We will not rest until Khan is released from jail,” said Khan’s close aide Hammad Azhar in the opening speech that set the tone of the rally.

Khan is the only person who can save this country from the “clutches of corrupt and incompetent politicians”, said Salman Akram Raja, a prominent lawyer and PTI leader from Lahore.

The Islamabad administration had blocked key entry points into the city, with shipping containers and riot police deployed to prevent possible unrest. Social media videos showed dozens of PTI activists successfully pushing away containers to clear the way at one of the entry points.

“It was very difficult to reach the rally. All roads had been blocked. But we are determined. If there is a call from Imran Khan to protest and we don’t come, that’s not possible. We are with him till our last breath,” Robina Ghafoor, a PTI supporter, told Al Jazeera.

PTI said the authorities were harassing workers to suppress attendance at the rally. Visuals aired on local broadcaster Samaa News showed enraged attendees throwing rocks at riot police, who also hurled tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said it was the first time since Khan’s arrest a year ago that the PTI was allowed by a Pakistani court to hold a rally on the outskirts of Islamabad.

“But the authorities have made rules along the routes by placing containers, making it difficult for people to reach the venue,” he said.

A spokesman for the Islamabad police, in a statement, in turn accused the protesters of pelting police personnel with stones, injuring many of them, including a senior official.

Khan, a former cricket star, was ousted from office through a no-trust vote in April 2022.

He has been in jail since August 2023 and is facing trial for allegedly inciting violence on May 9 of that year – the day when his supporters went on a rampage and attacked military installations.

An unprecedented arrest and subsequent court martial of a former spy chief, who is widely believed to have been close to Khan when he was prime minister, also complicated his case.

Khan denies the allegations. All of his convictions have been either suspended or overturned in recent months.

Moreover, in July, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced in a press conference in Islamabad that the government would ban Khan’s PTI party, citing accusations of inciting violent protests last year and leaking classified information.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the attempt to ban PTI “an enormous blow to democratic norms” and said it “reeks of political desperation”.

A United Nations panel of rights experts also found in July that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.