Imran Khan supporters pour into capital to challenge Pakistan’s government

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Thousands of supporters loyal to jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan flooded into the capital Islamabad, defying barricades, tear gas and rubber bullets to call for his release and the dissolution of the government.

The protest marks one of the most serious challenges so far to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s military-backed administration, which is struggling to steer one of Asia’s most troubled economies through a series of security and legitimacy crises.

Supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on Tuesday climbed over barriers made from shipping containers or pushed them aside using tractors to reach D-Chowk, a key junction just outside Islamabad’s secure Red Zone that houses the parliament and prime minister’s office.

Hammad Azhar, a PTI member and former finance minister, said party supporters planned to stay at D-Chowk until Khan and other “political prisoners” were freed from prison. But by early evening on Tuesday, the army had pushed the protesters back from the junction.

Plumes of tear gas billowed over container barriers placed on Islamabad’s usually relatively serene streets and gunfire could be heard from homes throughout the city’s upscale neighbourhoods. Mobile data services were cut throughout the capital.

Panicked residents and protesters rushed for cover as heavily armed security personnel poured into the capital in armoured vehicles.

“The people have come, and now the army is on its way,” said one riot gear-clad police officer as he walked away from D-Chowk. He estimated at least 1,000 protesters had reached the junction by Tuesday afternoon with thousands more on their way.

At least six people had been killed in the turmoil by early Tuesday morning. These included four paramilitary rangers and one civilian rammed by a car in an incident that Sharif blamed on PTI protesters, but which an interior ministry spokesperson said was caused by “unknown miscreants”.

A PTI spokesperson denied responsibility for those deaths and accused security forces of killing at least two demonstrators since Sunday.

Pakistan’s benchmark KSE100 stock index, which had enjoyed a historic bull run since the central bank began aggressively cutting rates in June, fell 3.57 per cent on Tuesday. Mohammed Sohail, chief executive of brokerage Topline Securities, said the slump was the index’s largest single-day decline and was due to “opposition protest concerns”.

Khan has been granted bail or has been acquitted of his five convictions, but remains in prison on more than 100 other charges ranging from graft to terrorism. One of his lawyers said the government was preparing new “politically motivated” charges to keep him behind bars.

“The political party is left with no other option in the courts, so all we have left is protest,” said the lawyer, who declined to be named out of concern about his safety.

The PTI is demanding the dissolution of the Sharif government, which came to power in February with army backing after candidates loyal to Khan won the most seats in a general election but were blocked from power. Protesters have also demanded the revocation of a recent constitutional amendment that gave parliament more control over the judiciary.

The government argues that whether Khan is released is a matter for the courts and that he is trying to use street power to undermine the rule of law.

The march on Islamabad, which began on Sunday, is led by Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife, who was released on bail in October after nine months in prison on corruption and unlawful marriage charges. Wrapped in a white shawl, she has encouraged protesters from atop a truck in a convoy surrounded by party faithful.

The military, the government and the PTI “all have their backs to a wall now”, said Bilal Gilani, executive director of Gallup Pakistan, a polling company not affiliated with the US-based Gallup.

While there was a risk for the PTI of its supporters becoming weary of the protests, the government and military had to weigh the dangers of keeping Khan in prison, Gilani said. “Outside, he’s a troublemaker; inside, he generates a lot of sympathy. Now they have to choose which is worse,” he said.