KAARCHI: Authorities in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, have banned protests involving more than five people until Sept. 30, a government notification said this week, with the restrictions coinciding with planned protests by a religio-political opposition party over electricity outages.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s Karachi leader, Monem Zafar Khan, said on Friday the party would set up protest camps at more than 25 locations from Saturday against power outages which the party blames on K-Electric, the company that supplies power to the port city.

The JI party has also held protests this month in Karachi and other cities against a tax on fuel. It has temporarily halted a separate protest march on Islamabad this week after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked its leader to postpone it, but said its protest camps would continue.

Karachi’s notification does not name Jamaat-e-Islami or another party. Issued Thursday at the request of Sindh police, it says protests on major roads had caused severe traffic congestion, raised security concerns and impeded access to hospitals.

“[I] do hereby prohibit the holding, organizing, convening, facilitating or participating in any protest, demonstration, sit-in, rally, procession or other public gathering involving more than five (05) persons, within the territorial limits of Karachi Division, with effect from 24.09.2026 to 30.09.2026,” the order signed by Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi said.

Police have been authorized to register complaints against people who violate the ban. Authorities have also restricted gatherings in Hyderabad and Sukkur, two other cities in Sindh province.

Separate restrictions are in force elsewhere in Pakistan ahead of a planned Sept. 27 march on Islamabad by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which is demanding the release of its founder, jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Punjab and Balochistan have also banned gatherings of five or more people, as has the capital.

PTI governs the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Authorities have closed major routes from there toward Islamabad, including part of the Peshawar–Islamabad motorway and a highway crossing near the provincial boundary.

Khan has been jailed since August 2023 and denies wrongdoing in the cases against him, which his party says are politically motivated. The government denies it interferes in judicial procedures.