Thousands of supporters of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan clashed with police in Islamabad on Wednesday as they defied a protest ban.
The defiant former prime minister had called followers to a rally outside Parliament to bring down the government and force early elections. The government of Mr Khan’s successor, Shehbaz Sharif, banned the rally and warned Mr Khan he could face arrest if he went ahead with the demonstrations.
Organisers had planned for crowds to travel by car and bus to Islamabad’s city limits, then march on foot.
Streets in major cities were blocked by shipping containers and security forces in an attempt to slow down or stop the protests. Police enforced entry restrictions around the Parliament building in the capital, where Mr Khan had called for his supporters to gather.
Later, clashes ensued and police used tear gas against demonstrators.
Emergency legislation banning gatherings, called section 144, was enacted in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, among other places.
The country’s Supreme Court ruled later on Wednesday that Mr Khan’s rally could go ahead — but only at a specifically allocated public grounds and on condition the demonstrators disperse after an address by the former prime minister. The court also asked Mr Khan’s lawyer, Babar Awan, to ensure that the rally remains peaceful.
Mr Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician, served as prime minister for over three and half years until last month. He was ousted by a no-confidence vote in Parliament and, since then, he has held rallies with thousands of people across the country.
Mr Khan said his removal from office was the result of a US-organised plot and collusion with Mr Sharif. Washington has also denied any role in Pakistan’s internal politics.
The former leader travelled by helicopter to a highway some 100 kilometres north west of Islamabad, where he condemned the police operation and urged supporters to join the rally.
“My message for the nation: Everyone must break out of the grip of fear to achieve freedom,” he wrote on Twitter, before travelling from the Swabi interchange.
Local TV footage showed police fighting with Mr Khan's supporters and beating them. In some places, officers were even shown breaking protesters' vehicles' windscreens and bundling people into police vans.
Amjad Malik, an interior ministry official, told Reuters no one had been seriously injured in the clashes, which took place mostly in Punjab province.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah later said police had carried out a total of 4,417 swoops on Khan supporters' homes, offices and on protest rallies — and had arrested nearly 1,700 people. Of those, 250 were freed after they submitted affidavits that they had nothing to do with the protest march, he said.
Political and economic volatility has deepened in the South Asian nation before a likely announcement by the International Monetary Fund later in the day on whether it will resume a $6 billion rescue package.
With foreign reserves falling to $10.3 billion — lower than two months of imports — a fast-crashing rupee and double-digit inflation, Pakistan's political turmoil has compounded its social and economic discontent.
Mr Sharif said his government was trying to clear up an economic mess that he blamed Mr Khan for.
"You've handed over a sinking economy to us, and now you're planning sit-ins and protest," Mr Sharif said in Islamabad. "We are trying to energise this weak economy."
