Now Reading: Imran Khan supporters threaten nationwide protests
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Imran Khan supporters threaten nationwide protests
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi warned on Monday that supporters will stage protests across Pakistan if former prime minister Imran Khan is not allowed to meet…
The Story in Brief
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi warned on Monday that supporters will stage protests across Pakistan if former prime minister Imran Khan is not allowed to meet party colleagues on Thursday. Afridi said the entire country will be turned into 'D-Chowk', the site of earlier clashes, by 10 pm that day. Khan, 73, has been in Adiala Jail since 2023, serving sentences in the Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust cases, which he and PTI insist are politically engineered. His health has deteriorated, including severe vision loss from a retinal condition, with his family blaming delayed medical intervention. Hindustan Times reports that US-Pakistan relations remain driven by security ties with the military, not Khan's democratic fate.
The Shehbaz Sharif government insists Khan's fate rests with the judiciary and rejects medical bail. Hindustan Times says any release would depend on political calculations, not legal momentum, and could require conditions such as exile or political silence.
The Indian Opinion
The narrative that the US has 'amnesia on democracy' in Pakistan oversimplifies its strategic calculus, Washington prioritises stability through military channels over any single leader's rights. PTI's threat to turn the entire country into a protest zone may be hyperbolic, but it exposes the real impasse: Khan's release is a political bargain, not a legal process. The concrete test is Thursday's meeting request. If the government blocks it, will protesters actually fill the streets, or will the military's grip hold? That outcome will settle how much leverage Khan still carries from solitary confinement.
Sources (2): hindustantimes.com, thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
