Here’s what happened today
We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
- One police officer was shot and killed and at least 120 were wounded in clashes with protesters just outside Islamabad. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said dozens of its activists were also hurt.
- The mass convoy of PTI supporters arrived in Islamabad and made its way to the D-Chowk, an area housing key government institutions they plan to occupy.
- One of Imran Khan’s senior aides, Shaukat Yousafzai, accused Pakistani security forces of excessive violence including “firing live bullets”.
- Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the government held talks with leaders of Khan’s PTI party to calm the situation, but discussions bore no fruit.
- Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and close Khan aide, categorically rejected that any kind of negotiations occurred.
- Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said it would be “very easy” for the government to open fire on converging demonstrators, but added that it would exercise restrain – for the time being.
- Only gets worse for Pakistanis suffering economic woes
- Azeema Cheema, a political economy specialist based in Islamabad, says Pakistan’s government has “besieged itself” in the capital and the standoff could last a “week or so”.
- “What we shouldn’t underestimate is Mr Khan has successfully been able to mobilise his party workers and supporters again and again in cycles. Mr Khan has been able to do this with little or no cost to his party,” Cheema told Al Jazeera.
- But she noted that it is ordinary Pakistanis who will pay the price for the confrontation. Some economists say protests could cause millions of dollars in damage to the country’s fragile economy.
- “A week of this kind of shutdown in Islamabad means critical costs to the business of the government, private sector, children going to school. This is being borne by a population suffering huge losses under Pakistan’s economic crisis,” said Cheema.
