Pakistan’s Main Opposition Party Postpones Capital March, Sets New Date
Pakistan’s largest opposition party postponed a march on the capital that had been planned for Sept. 27, saying it would instead begin the demonstration in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Oct. 4. The announcement came after days of road closures and a security buildup around Islamabad.
Sohail Afridi, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and a member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said the party’s political committee had agreed unanimously to the new timeline and that allied parties had been informed. PTI is the party founded by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been in prison since August 2023. The march was organized to demand his release.
A PTI spokesperson, Zulfi Bukhari, said the party could still launch the march before Oct. 4 if it chose to. “We can now do it whenever we deem fit. The question is to the government, as to how long they’re willing to keep the country closed off,” he said. Some party officials had denied in the preceding two days that any postponement was under discussion, saying preparations for a Sept. 27 mobilization were continuing.
Security measures preceded the decision
In the week before the announcement, authorities closed the motorway between Islamabad and Peshawar and restricted several other routes into the capital, including the Grand Trunk Road crossing at Attock and the highway toward Dera Ismail Khan. Local media reported that more than 2,000 shipping containers had been placed across roads in Islamabad and at the Attock Bridge, the main crossing between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab province.
The federal Ministry of Interior authorized the deployment of Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary force, in Islamabad and several Punjab districts from Sept. 20 to Oct. 5, citing requests from the Islamabad chief commissioner and the Punjab government. A notification from the ministry said the deployed troops were authorized to “respond appropriately in self-defence to any threats or violent activities encountered in the course of their duties.” A state minister for interior, Talal Chaudhry, said the government had decided not to seek the army’s involvement and would rely instead on police, Rangers and the Frontier Corps. Section 144, a colonial-era public-order law that bars gatherings, was also imposed in Islamabad and parts of Punjab.
Authorities detained Khan’s three sisters, Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, in the days before the announcement. PTI said five members of the National Assembly, a senator and more than 1,500 party workers were also detained. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it “deplores the mounting arrests and preventive detention of PTI workers, lawmakers and leaders ahead of the party’s planned protest march.” Government officials have said the security measures, including the detentions, are necessary to maintain public order.
Contacts and conditions
A PTI leader, speaking to Dawn newspaper on condition of anonymity, said the party had already achieved part of its aim through the buildup itself, arguing that the government had spent heavily on security and closed roads regardless of whether the march went ahead. Separately, a party lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjutha, said this week that the protest could be postponed if the government gave three assurances: holding elections within six to eight months, releasing Khan and other political prisoners, and opening investigations into clashes between PTI supporters and security forces in May 2023 and November 2024. PTI’s information secretary, Sheikh Waqas Akram, said no such proposal was before any party forum and that only Khan could make that decision.
Government officials gave differing accounts of contact with PTI. Rana Sanaullah, an adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on political affairs, said talks with PTI could not proceed unless the march was postponed. The Nation newspaper reported unconfirmed accounts that the government had offered, through backchannel contacts, to move Khan to a hospital in Islamabad for treatment and to allow his wife, Bushra Bibi, to be moved to house arrest; Akram said the party had “received no offer from the federal government.” Neither claim has been independently confirmed.
Background
Khan, 73, was removed as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 and has been imprisoned since August 2023. He has been convicted in a series of separate cases, including over the alleged unlawful sale of state gifts, the leaking of a diplomatic cable, and a corruption case involving a trust linked to his family; he and his wife have received additional sentences since, including 17-year terms handed down in December 2025. Khan and his legal team have appealed the convictions, saying he was denied a fair opportunity to defend himself; PTI and some independent legal observers have described the proceedings as politically motivated, a characterization the government disputes. Under Islamabad High Court’s case-fixation policy, several of the appeals, including one filed in January 2025, have not yet been scheduled for hearing.
PTI’s previous large-scale march on Islamabad, in November 2024, ended in clashes with security forces. PTI said 20 of its supporters were killed; the government said four security personnel died. Independent estimates of the total death toll have ranged from five to 18. More than 4,000 people were arrested in connection with that protest, according to figures cited at the time.
What follows
PTI has said the march could begin from Peshawar as early as Oct. 4, though the party has reserved the option of moving the date earlier. The government’s authorization for the Rangers deployment runs through Oct. 5. It remains unconfirmed whether the reported backchannel contacts between the government and PTI are continuing, and whether the three conditions cited by Panjutha have been formally presented to or by either side.
Sources
Reporting on the postponement decision and PTI spokesperson comments is corroborated by Reuters; details on security deployments, detentions and party statements are drawn from Dawn and other Pakistani outlets, supplemented by Al Jazeera and background from Wikipedia and The News (Pakistan).
Wire services and international press
- Reuters (via U.S. News & World Report), “Imran Khan’s Party Postpones Planned Islamabad March to October 4.” https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-09-25/imran-khans-party-postpones-planned-islamabad-march-to-october-4
- Al Jazeera, “‘Source of anxiety’: Pakistan cracks down before march to free Imran Khan.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news-analysis/2026/9/24/source-of-anxiety-pakistan-cracks-down-before-march-to-free-imran-khan
Local press (proceedings and documents)
- Dawn, “PTI decides to postpone Sept 27 Islamabad long march.” https://www.dawn.com/news/2032588/pti-decides-to-postpone-sept-27-islamabad-long-march
- Dawn, “PTI considering postponing Sept 27 Islamabad long march.” https://www.dawn.com/news/2032588/pti-considering-postponing-sept-27-islamabad-long-march
- Dawn, “Rangers deployed in Islamabad, Punjab districts ahead of PTI’s Sept 27 march.” https://www.dawn.com/news/2032350/rangers-deployed-in-islamabad-punjab-districts-ahead-of-ptis-sept-27-march
- Dawn, “PTI ‘still in two minds’ over march plans to Islamabad.” https://www.dawn.com/news/2032491
- The Nation, “Routes sealed, Rangers deployed in Islamabad, Punjab ahead of PTI march.” https://www.nation.com.pk/25-Sep-2026/routes-sealed-rangers-deployed-islamabad-punjab-ahead-pti-march
Background and prior proceedings
- Wikipedia, “Imprisonment of Imran Khan” (accessed Sept. 25, 2026). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprisonment_of_Imran_Khan
- Wikipedia, “November 2024 PTI protest” (accessed Sept. 25, 2026). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2024_PTI_protest
- The News (Pakistan), “Conviction after conviction: Imran’s diminishing legal options to get free” (Jan. 28, 2026). https://www.thenews.pk/print/1395633-conviction-after-conviction-imran-s-diminishing-legal-options-to-get-free
Editor’s note on sourcing Reports of a specific government offer to move Khan to hospital and his wife to house arrest, and of the exact terms of any postponement conditions, come from a single unnamed PTI source and disputed official statements; these are attributed as claims, not stated as fact, and remain unconfirmed. Casualty figures for the November 2024 protest are disputed between PTI, the government and independent estimates and are presented with all three ranges rather than a single number.
