Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan blocked roads around the country’s capital, Islamabad, causing traffic jams and forcing schools to suspend classes on Tuesday.
Pakistan has been experiencing a scenario of instability for months, but since Friday (4), the acts have gained new impetus due to the attempted assassination of Khan, shot in the leg while speaking at a political event the day before. Despite his injuries, the former prime minister is doing well and recovering.
Blockades intensified on Islamabad’s main roads on Monday afternoon. Access to the capital’s international airport was blocked, as were highways connecting the capital to the major cities of Lahore and Peshawar.
“Families have been stuck in the traffic jam for several hours. We have news that protesters did not even let ambulances pass,” police officer Yawar Ali told Reuters news agency.
Local television showed footage of Khan supporters setting fire to tires and setting up makeshift camps on the sides of roads. The government ordered the suspension of classes in public and private schools.
Blocked roads and burning tires, by the way, replay scenes seen even in late October, when Imran Khan was prevented by the highest electoral court from contesting the elections. The election is scheduled for August next year, but the former prime minister was banned from running for public office for five years due to conviction for illegal sale of state items and concealment of assets – Khan appeals the decision.
The former leader took the lead in protests demanding early elections through a “long march” that began in the Punjab capital, Lahore, less than a week ago. As a result of the attack, he announced that the march will end next Thursday (10) and that the last meeting point will be the shooting site, which he must attend only by videoconference.
Shehbaz Sharif, the current prime minister, condemned the attack on his predecessor and ordered the Interior Ministry to immediately launch an investigation. “We pray for a speedy recovery for Imran and the others injured. Violence should have no place in politics,” he said in a press release after the shooting.
Former cricket champion, Khan was elected in August 2018, after a campaign marred by accusations of manipulation by the army, considered a kind of “invisible hand” guiding the country’s policy, which has faced several coups d’état throughout the country. of your story.
The opposition accused Khan of mismanaging the economy and foreign policy, and his popularity was low after three straight years of double-digit inflation and massive public debt.
Since being ousted in April, he has alleges to have been the victim of a conspiracy articulated by the military, his successor and the US – accusations that are all denied. In May, the former prime minister even recorded a video claiming to risk his life, listing the names of those who would have plotted against him.
This is not the first time that violence has haunted the new prime minister’s government. Last week, journalist Arshad Sharif, a well-known supporter of Khan who had fled the country alleging state persecution, was killed in ill-explained circumstances in Nairobi, Kenya, shot by police when the car he was in drove through a roadblock without stopping.
The episode sparked outrage in Pakistan and calls for an investigation to be opened. The reporter, who was still a fierce critic of the Army, was for many years the anchor of one of the prime-time news programs on a local broadcaster.
The country also has a long history of political violence, which includes the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and the deposition and hanging of fellow former prime minister and father of politics, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1979.
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