New Delhi: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has postponed its planned September 27 march on Islamabad to October 4, party sources said on Friday, as authorities maintained sweeping security restrictions around the capital. More than 22,000 police and other security personnel have been deployed and more than 1,000 shipping containers positioned as barriers after the party called the mobilization to demand the release of jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan.
Public gatherings remain banned in Islamabad under section 144, while major routes linking the capital with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been blocked or restricted. Authorities closed sections of the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway, the Islamabad-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway, the Hazara Motorway and Grand Trunk Road, with barriers also placed around key crossings in Attock.
March pushed to October 4
Dawn reported that a senior PTI leader said the march would now leave Peshawar on October 4 and that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Sohail Afridi, was expected to formally announce the postponement. The Express Tribune separately reported that PTI’s political committee agreed to defer the march after consultations on Friday.
The decision followed uncertainty within the party over whether to proceed on Sunday. PTI lawyer Naeem Haider Panjutha had said the protest could be postponed if the government agreed to elections within six to eight months, released Khan and other political prisoners and ordered inquiries into the May 9, 2023, events and the November 26, 2024, protest crackdown. A party spokesman, Sheikh Waqas Akram, however, had disputed that those conditions were under formal discussion and said only Khan could decide whether to postpone the march.
Security measures disrupt movement
The federal government has authorized Pakistan Rangers deployments in Islamabad and several Punjab districts through October 5. The interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, had earlier said the government would prevent protesters from entering Islamabad, citing an Islamabad high court ruling that political parties have no lawful right to occupy public roads, highways or government buildings.
The road closures and container barriers have also affected ordinary movement and supplies into the capital. The Guardian reported that businesses were struggling to receive supplies as access routes were blocked, while sandbags and other barriers were positioned at several points.
The political confrontation has been accompanied by preventive detentions. Khan’s sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi remained detained under 30-day maintenance of public order orders as of Friday, while challenges to their detention were before the Lahore high court. The human rights commission of Pakistan has criticized the arrests and restrictions on movement and called for political dialogue.
Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 and is serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges. He denies wrongdoing and says the cases against him are politically motivated.
With the September 27 march now deferred, attention shifts to whether PTI formally confirms the October 4 mobilization and whether authorities ease the road closures and security restrictions imposed around Islamabad.