Pakistan deployed 22,000 security personnel and blocked Islamabad’s main routes Thursday ahead of a Sunday protest by supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, bringing transport nearly to a standstill. PTI said almost 1,500 activists had been detained.
Authorities detained Khan’s sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi under 30-day preventive orders issued under Punjab’s Maintenance of Public Order ordinance. The orders accused them of “mobilising supporters via social media and incitement against state institutions.” Dozens of PTI lawmakers, regional leaders and activists were also rounded up across Punjab and Islamabad.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar denied Islamabad was being put under lockdown. Amnesty International’s Babu Ram Pant said targeting Khan’s family and PTI activists violated their rights to liberty, expression, association and peaceful assembly. A separate protest over inflation and petroleum levies, planned by Jamaat-e-Islami and farmers’ union leaders, was suspended after a call with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration.
