Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Kahn has led a protest convoy into the D-Chowk , or government district, of the nation’s capital, Islamabad.
Khan was ousted from power in April this year after a no-confidence vote against him removed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from power, replacing Kahn with current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistani Muslim League party (PLM).
The PLM government issued a ban on PTI gatherings in anticipation of the convoy’s arrival with Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah accusing Kanh and the PTI of spreading “chaos” in the name of democracy, warning that “they will be stopped”
The convoy, which was made up of thousands of PTI supporters from surrounding cities, arrived in Islamabad shortly after midnight on 26th of May. Khan addressed the crowd at approximately 3am local time saying “I want to declare today to this imported government that I am giving you 6 days to announce elections in the month of June”
He continued by saying, “If you don’t do this after 6 days, I will come to Islamabad again with the entire nation”.
Reuters reported Kahn as having said that the vote that ousted him from government was part of a ‘US conspiracy’.
Yesterday, amid clashes between protesters and police, he called off the proposed ‘sit in’ demonstrations after issuing the warning of his return, should the government fail to dissolve the assembly and announce elections.
Bloomberg correspondent Faseeh Managi commented that multiple protests had broken out with violence erupting after the government issued its ban. Videos taken at the protest show police using tear gas, with reports that many of the canisters caught on fire.
Pakistan’s WION news reported that there have also been reports of police and paramilitaries beating protesters.
Before being ousted, Kahn had praised India’s Modi government for reducing the price of fuel amid global price hikes. He noted India’s use of “discounted oil” from Russia which he said brought “relief to the masses”.
Figures from abd.org (Asian Development Bank) for 2018 show that 21.9% of Pakistan’s population live below the country’s poverty line.
On Wednesday last the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged Pakistan to ‘remove fuel and energy subsidies’ in order to address the Islamic Republic’s deepening economic deficit, saying that such action was needed to allow the possibility of more bilateral funding.
In 2019 Pakistan entered a 3- year $6 billion deal with the IMF, with $900,000,000 still outstanding. WION news reported that the country’s foreign reserves are currently only enough to cover 2 months worth of imports.