Clashes erupt between police and PTI

Islamabad: Clashes erupted on Sunday between police and Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf (PTI) in Islamabad and some parts of Punjab province ahead of the party’s November 2 planned lockdown of the capital aiming to unseat Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Khan also said Sharif and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, were using the state machinery to save the corrupt prime minister.

According to former Punjab governor and PTI leader Chaudhry Sarwar, so far Punjab and Islamabad police have arrested 1,000 PTI workers.

He said police is not only arresting PTI workers heading to Islamabad but also from their homes.

The Punjab government has started blocking all entry points leading to the federal capital. The government’s decision was causing immense inconvenience to commuters.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the government had closed roads near Attock to check the movement of PTI workers into Punjab because they are planning to head towards Islamabad.

However, he said no other roads in the province had been blocked “completely”, although snap-checking of all those heading towards the federal capital was being carried out.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani said that the federal and Punjab governments had converted the province into a prison by placing barriers on roads.

He said Sharif could “punish” PTI workers but he had no right to create hardship for the people of the entire province.

The Peshawar-Islamabad motorway has also been closed at one point while barricades have been placed at Mardan and Nowshera roads.

Heavy contingents of police have been deployed on various roads leading to Islamabad while transporters had been warned against facilitating the PTI supporters.

Khan on Sunday accused Sharif of pursuing his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s interests in Pakistan as the government cracked down on the cricketer-turned-politician’s supporters with police arresting over 100 of them.

“When Nawaz Sharif went to London for whatever kind of surgery, he on the hospital bed first telephoned Modi instead of his mother or children,” Khan said at a press conference outside his Bani Gala residence here, referring to Sharif’s open heart surgery at a London hospital in May.

“Nawaz is following Modi’s ‘interests’ in Pakistan. Nawaz is behind the security leaks story which defamed the armed forces. Actually his and Modi’s agenda is same,” he said.

Khan said “everybody knows” that sacked Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid cannot leak sensitive information to the media on his own.

Sharif on Saturday sacked Rashid over the recent “leaked” media report about a rift between the civilian and military leaderships on support to militancy.

“Rashid is a darbari [courtier] and he did what Nawaz told him to do so,” Imran said.

“The whole state machinery is being used to save a corrupt Prime Minister. I will not accept a ‘suspect’ as Prime Minister of Pakistan. As long as I am alive I will not go after Nawaz Sharif’s corruption,” the 64-year-old leader said.

Imran stressed that there was no difference between Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship and Sharif’s democracy. He asked under what law his party workers are being arrested and roads blocked.

“Our legal team will move the court tomorrow,” Imran stated.

Police arrested over 100 PTI protesters trying to reach party chief Khan’s residence. Police also baton-charged and used tear gas on protesters in the Pakistan Chowk area.

However, no PTI worker suffered serious injuries.

Meanwhile, Islamabad police said they recovered five Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, six magazines, a bulletproof vest, alcohol and three tear gas shells from PTI leader Amin Gandapur’s car outside Bani Gala.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Minister Amin Gandapur’s car was stopped at a check post and searched. The car was impounded and Gandapur’s driver was detained by police, Dawn News reported.

The PTI has announced that they will ensure a lockdown in Islamabad on November 2 to pressure Sharif to resign in connection with probe into his offshore holdings as revealed in the Panama Papers.

The government has already blocked provincial roads to the capital and arrested around 1,000 PTI workers.