Dozens of supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Jan have blocked several streets in the country’s capital Islamabad on Tuesday as part of anti-government protests following the assassination attempt on the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party leader.
Yauar Ali, an officer of the Islamabad Police, confirmed that the blockade of streets is hindering movement in the city and stressed that «there are families who have been stuck in traffic for hours», as reported by the Pakistani television channel Geo TV.
In this context, the Pakistani police have asked permission to intervene and unblock the highway connecting Lahore and Peshawar, also blocked by protesters and leading from the capital to Islamabad airport.
The authorities have recalled that «ambassadors and foreigners use this same road to access the capital» and have warned that any incident during the protests could damage the image of Pakistan at the international level.
The protests take place despite the PTI announced on Monday that the «long march» to the capital, scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed to Thursday, amid Jan’s pulse with the government of the current prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, from whom he demands early elections.
On Monday, the former prime minister called on Pakistani President Arif Alvi to «act now» to stop the «abuse of power» and denounced «a plot to assassinate him» allegedly hatched by Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and the head of the intelligence services.
Jan, who in April became the first Pakistani president to be ousted in a no-confidence motion, was disqualified at the end of October by the electoral commission for not having declared the money from the sale of gifts and presents received from international leaders when he was at the head of the government.
His departure from office was followed by a growing political tension marked by scandals of transfugism and massive protests in favor and against the Prime Minister, denounced by the opposition alliance of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) as a «puppet» of the Army. The Armed Forces are considered to be the most powerful force in Pakistan since its independence from the British Raj in 1947.
