PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s long march toward Islamabad entered its third day on Tuesday, with convoys from several districts joining the protest led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, as the federal government warned the demonstrators would not be allowed into the capital’s secured government district.
The march, which began Sunday from Lakki Marwat, spent Monday night near Kohat, according to the route announced by Afridi. Convoys from Kohat, Hangu, Kurram, and Orakzai were expected to join at noon on Tuesday before the march moves toward Peshawar, where participants are to spend the night near Matani. Thousands of supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan have joined the march to demand his release, according to Reuters.
The protest follows the collapse of negotiations between Khan’s party and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government over the weekend. In televised remarks on Monday, the prime minister issued a warning to the opposition over the march, while KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said the march would not be allowed to go beyond Attock, according to Pakistani news outlets.
Both sides have accused each other of abandoning the talks. Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Information Danyal Chaudhry accused the PTI of deliberately sabotaging the government’s efforts to negotiate, while PTI leaders say the government negotiated in bad faith and never intended to accommodate their demands.
Authorities have deployed police and paramilitary forces and positioned shipping containers along routes into Islamabad, saying protesters will not be permitted to enter the tightly secured district that houses government buildings. The standoff raises the risk of a repeat of the PTI’s last large-scale protest two years ago, which ended in deadly clashes with security forces, according to Reuters.
The rift between Khan’s party and the country’s leadership dates to Khan’s 2022 ouster by parliament. Khan, 74, was arrested in 2023; he has described himself as a political prisoner, a charge the military and the current civilian government deny, pointing to the independence of Pakistan’s judiciary. All but one of his convictions have since been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending.
The march comes as Pakistan’s government plays a growing diplomatic role: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Islamabad this week for meetings with Pakistani officials, and Pakistani news outlets reported the U.N. chief praised the country’s mediatory role in the U.S.-Iran conflict.
