PAKISTANI authorities blocked roads leading to the capital, Islamabad, and suspended mobile phone service in the city today in an attempt to prevent supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan from holding a rally.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government also deployed paramilitary rangers and additional police and shut schools in Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi after Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party refused to withdraw its call for the protest to demand its leader’s release.

Mr Khan’s supporters plan to march from the province to Islamabad, defying a ban on rallies imposed this week.

Police have reportedly arrested some party supporters.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told Mr Khan’s party to cancel the planned protest and warned that there would be “no leniency” if the ban on protests is defied.

Mr Khan has been in prison for more than a year in connection with more than 150 police cases, which critics and his party say are politically motivated. 

He was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in parliament and arrested in 2023 after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence in a corruption case.

A message on Mr Khan’s social media said: “The tyrants in power want to terrorise us. 

“So go forth fearlessly and remember if you still hesitate, to step forward and truly liberate yourself.”