Party sets off from Lakki Marwat on Sunday as tensions rise with federal government over jailed former prime minister.
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are set to begin a long protest march from southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, escalating political pressure on the federal government to secure the release of their incarcerated leader.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, a key PTI figure, announced that the march will start from Gandi Chowk in Lakki Marwat district on October 4. Participants are expected to proceed through Karak and Kohat before reaching Peshawar around October 6, with processions from other regions of the province converging in Swabi before advancing towards the federal capital, Islamabad.
Afridi has called on supporters, particularly in the southern districts, to mobilise in large numbers. “This march will change Pakistan’s destiny,” he said while rallying workers ahead of the planned mobilisation. Party information secretary Shaukat Yousafzai confirmed that preparations were complete and that resource shortages would not hinder the protest, describing Islamabad as the final destination.
PTI October 4 March Amid Government Talks :
The march forms part of PTI’s sustained campaign for the release of Khan, who remains detained in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on multiple charges that the party and his supporters dismiss as politically motivated. Demands also include allowing family members, party leaders and lawyers access to the former premier, his transfer to a hospital for medical treatment, and the early hearing of his cases.
Originally scheduled for September 27, the protest was postponed to October 4 after a meeting of the party’s political committee. Authorities had already deployed extensive security measures, including roadblocks and container barriers, to prevent earlier attempts to reach the capital.
The planned mobilisation comes amid ongoing talks between the government and PTI. Party officials have described recent negotiations as “encouraging,” while federal officials have insisted that the long march must be called off unconditionally before any meaningful progress can be made. Warnings of possible governor’s rule in the PTI-run province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have circulated, though no formal decision has been announced.
PTI March Highlights Ongoing Political Tensions:
PTI leaders have repeatedly stressed that the march will remain peaceful, urging participants to join unarmed. They frame the protest as a struggle for constitutional supremacy, an independent judiciary, media freedom and what they term “genuine democracy”-principles they say Khan has long championed.
For many PTI supporters, the continued detention of their founder, once Pakistan’s most popular elected leader, has become a symbol of broader grievances over political exclusion and institutional imbalance. The federal government, for its part, views large-scale street mobilisations as a threat to public order and has shown little willingness to concede ground on Khan’s release.
As convoys prepare to depart from Lakki Marwat, the coming days will test both the party’s organisational strength and the government’s capacity to manage a high-stakes political confrontation. Whether the march succeeds in forcing concessions or further entrenches the standoff remains to be seen, but it underscores the unresolved tensions that continue to shape Pakistan’s turbulent political landscape more than two years after Khan’s ouster from power.