Islamabad had prepared for another confrontation. Roads were blocked, security forces deployed and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters were expected to march towards the capital demanding the release of their jailed leader, Imran Khan.
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Then, days before the September 27 protest, PTI postponed the march until October 4, temporarily easing the pressure on the government.
But the roads can be reopened and the barricades removed. The political problem surrounding Imran Khan is proving harder to clear.
The former prime minister has now spent more than three years behind bars. The establishment has used imprisonment, restrictions on his contact with the outside world, scores of legal cases and a crackdown on his supporters. Yet none of it has so far succeeded in removing Imran Khan from the centre of Pakistan's politics. PTI-backed independents won the largest number of directly elected national assembly seats in the 2024 general election, and his supporters continue to mobilise around demands for his release.
The postponed Islamabad march is therefore less an end to the latest confrontation than another pause in a political standoff that has survived elections, convictions and imprisonment.
How Imran Khan got here
Imran Khan retired from international cricket in 1992, shortly after leading Pakistan to its first and, so far, only 50-over Cricket World Cup title. Four years later, in 1996, he formally entered politics by founding the PTI.
His political breakthrough finally came after the 2018 general election, when the PTI emerged as the single-largest party and he became prime minister. His rise to power was widely seen by rivals and analysts as having benefited from the backing of Pakistan’s military, the country’s most powerful institution, although both Khan and the military denied that the army had helped bring him to power.
