Pakistan protests live: Imran Khan supporters converge on Islamabad
- Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in the capital, Islamabad, demanding his release from jail and the government’s resignation.
- Thousands of Khan supporters have already been detained by police as Islamabad remains under lockdown in advance of the rally.
Only gets worse for Pakistanis suffering economic woes
Azeema Cheema, a political economy specialist based in Islamabad, says Pakistan’s government has “besieged itself” in the capital and the standoff could last a “week or so”.
“What we shouldn’t underestimate is Mr Khan has successfully been able to mobilise his party workers and supporters again and again in cycles. Mr Khan has been able to do this with little or no cost to his party,” Cheema told Al Jazeera.
But she noted that it is ordinary Pakistanis who will pay the price for the confrontation. Some economists say protests could cause millions of dollars in damage to the country’s fragile economy.
“A week of this kind of shutdown in Islamabad means critical costs to the business of the government, private sector, children going to school. This is being borne by a population suffering huge losses under Pakistan’s economic crisis,” said Cheema.
Casualty numbers rise after day of clashes in Pakistan
Punjab’s provincial police chief, Usman Anwar, says two police officers are in critical condition after a day of violence between Khan’s supporters and security forces.
One police officer has been shot and killed and at least 119 are wounded. He said 22 police vehicles were torched in clashes just outside Islamabad and elsewhere in the province,
Khan’s party said scores of its workers were also injured.
Islamabad blockade receives increasing public criticism
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has come under increasing criticism for deploying heavy-handed measures to quash PTI’s protests.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that “blocking access to the capital, with motorway and highway closures across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has effectively penalized ordinary citizens”.
In a bid to foil the protest, police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters since Friday and suspended mobile and internet services “in areas with security concerns”.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/11/25/pakistan-protests-live-imran-khans-supporters-arrested-ahead-of-rally#:~:text=%E2%80%98They%20must%20not,law%20and%20order%E2%80%9D.
US urges restraint on both sides in Pakistan protests
The United States appealed for restraint from Pakistani authorities and tens of thousands of protesters marching on the capital to call for the release of jailed ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“We call on protesters to demonstrate peacefully and refrain from violence and, at the same time, we call on Pakistani authorities to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to ensure respect for Pakistan’s laws and constitution as they work to maintain law and order,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington, DC.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s chief demand is the release of Khan, the 72-year-old charismatic former cricket star who served as premier from 2018 to 2022 and is the lodestar of their party.
