On Thursday, Pakistan’s stubborn former Prime Minister Imran Khan called off his open-ended sit-in in Islamabad, allaying worries of a protracted civil war after leading thousands of people on a march to Parliament demanding the government’s resignation.
On Wednesday, Khan’s supporters began pouring into the capital, with 10,000 reaching the city center about midnight. Khan arrived in a caravan of cars, buses, and trucks, accompanied by people waving flags and rallying overnight. Outside Parliament, some demonstrators battled with police.
Khan handed Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who took over in April, less than a week to call new elections, threatening to come to the capital with three million followers if his administration did not comply.
“I am giving you six days,” Khan shouted early Thursday from a sound truck positioned on Jinnah Avenue in the heart of the city, also demanding the dissolution of Parliament. “f you don’t do it after six days, I will return,” he said.
Khan, a former cricketer turned Islamist politician, served as Prime Minister for more than three and a half years before being forced out by a no-confidence vote in Parliament last month. He has led demonstrations across the country since then, claiming that his ouster from power was the product of a plan orchestrated by the United States. The allegation has been refuted by Washington, and Sharif has dismissed Khan’s assertion as “a pack of lies.”
On Wednesday, riot police shot tear gas and pushed back hundreds of pro-Khan demonstrators who threw stones as they attempted to get through a barrier near the city to catch buses going for Islamabad.
In Islamabad, dozens of Khan’s supporters clashed with police, setting fire to bushes lining a key avenue, shooting smoke and flames into the sky. Demonstrators destroyed a police vehicle in Karachi, among other places where clashes were reported.
In the last 48 hours, the government claims to have arrested nearly 1,700 Khan supporters.
When some members of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party and a major coalition partner defected ahead of a no-confidence vote in April, he lost power. He, on the other hand, blamed the United States, alleging that Washington intended to depose him with Sharif’s support.
Khan’s popularity had waned in the latter months of his reign as a result of rising inflation. Due to his rhetorical assault against the US and Sharif’s regime, he has regained a considerable portion of his lost popularity.
Khan has held rallies across the country since his resignation, but his march on Islamabad on Wednesday was his largest. He led tens of thousands of supporters from Peshawar, in the northwest of Pakistan, to Islamabad with women and children in order to “liberate” Pakistan from the US-imposed government.
Khan and his party have been encouraging people to march to Parliament Square, where he planned to join them. He gave no explanation for ending the sit-in. Hundreds of his fans arrived in the area and battled with officers.
Authorities said Khan called off his protest after receiving a poor reaction from the crowd, which they estimate to be between 10,000 and 15,000 people.
After calling off the protest, Khan returned to his home in the Islamabad suburbs.
Image Credit: Getty
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