Police have fired tear gas at protesters near the Islamabad home of Imran Khan as the former cricketer turned politician vowed to ignore a government ban on demonstrations in the Pakistani capital.
Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has vowed to shut down the capital to protest against what he alleges is the corruption of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
The government banned all gatherings in the capital on Thursday in an effort to head off a repeat of Khan’s four-month long demonstration in 2014 which attracted tens of thousands of his supporters to the government quarter of Islamabad, some of whom stormed the offices of the state broadcaster and the lawns of parliament.
Police were deployed on Friday outside Khan’s hilltop mansion in the outskirts of Islamabad while shipping containers were used to block roads in the nearby city of Rawalpindi to try to stop PTI supporters from attending a rally called by Sheikh Rashid, a key Khan ally from the Awami Muslim League (AML) party.
In Rawalpindi, Khan’s supporters fought running battles with police, hurling rocks and resisting police baton charges.
Khan accused the prime minister of putting him under “house arrest”, although there was no suggestion that he had been prevented from leaving his property.
“Nawaz Sharif put me in jail, I’ll get out of jail and come after you again,” he said. “You have house arrested me right now, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t matter to our workers. We will come back even stronger.”
Earlier he called for nationwide protests after a PTI youth wing meeting in Islamabad was raided by police on Thursday night and 38 activists arrested.
Party workers remain adamant that their planned protest in the capital will go ahead on 2 November, although many political analysts say Khan is pursuing a high-stakes strategy with a slim chance of success.
Khan has said next week’s protests will bring a million people onto the streets and sit-ins will force the closure of schools, public offices and the main international airport.
He is also due to be joined by the supporters of Tahir-ul-Qadri, the leader of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, a religious party capable of turning out large numbers of people.
In theory the demonstrations are trying to force an investigation into the affairs of Sharif after it was revealed earlier this year that his children owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
But in recent days Khan’s statements have suggested he would favour the country’s powerful army stepping in to force the prime minister from office.
Although Sharif enjoys a hefty parliamentary majority, having won a landslide election victory in 2013, his position was recently undermined after his government clashed with the military establishment.
The country’s generals were angered by a newspaper leak claiming the government had warned the army that its protection of jihadist groups that attack Afghanistan and India from Pakistani territory was leading to international isolation for the country.
Often fraught relations between the army and government are currently more strained than usual as Sharif prepares to appoint a new army chief in the coming weeks.
