What changed
Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan began marching from Lakki Marwat toward Islamabad on Sunday after talks between his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and Shehbaz Sharif’s government ended without agreement.
The march, involving about 5,000 people, was paused overnight and expected to resume Monday. Islamabad authorities have placed shipping containers on key routes into the capital. PTI says negotiations failed over access to Khan and demands for his medical examination and treatment.
Why it matters
This is now a test of whether Khan’s imprisonment can contain his political movement. He is serving a 17-year sentence over corruption and faces charges in more than 100 cases, but his supporters are still trying to turn pressure over his imprisonment and health into a national mobilisation.
The route itself shows the scale of the challenge. The march started 275km from Islamabad, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi expects it to reach a town about 80km west of the capital by Thursday. Authorities are already treating access to Islamabad as something to control physically, not just politically.
Khan’s health has sharpened the dispute. His family says he has lost most of the vision in his right eye, while doctors deemed him medically fit after a hospital examination in August. That leaves the political argument tied to a medical question that remains unresolved: whether he will receive the treatment his family and PTI are demanding.
The immediate outlook is uncertain. The march may reach Islamabad at its expected scale, or the confrontation may intensify before then. Pakistan has already seen deadly violence around Khan’s arrest: at least eight people died in protests in May 2023, after supporters ransacked a military commander’s residence in Lahore.
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