ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s main opposition party said on Monday authorities had arrested 1,500 supporters ahead of a planned march on Islamabad, as the government warned against entering the capital in defiance of a court order.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, founded by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, plans to march on Islamabad on Sept. 27 to demand his release. Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 on multiple charges that he and his party say are politically motivated.

The planned demonstration comes as supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party, are separately traveling toward Islamabad to demand the abolition of a levy on petroleum products that has become an important source of federal revenue.

“At this moment, 1,500 of our workers [supporters] have been arrested, the lists of others have been prepared,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Gohar Khan announced at a press conference in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Arab News could not independently verify the claim and Pakistani authorities have not released an overall count of people detained ahead of the march.

Gohar said those detained included members of the National Assembly, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament, as well as a senator and provincial lawmakers.

“Our ministers have been arrested in their own provinces,” the PTI chairman said.

Gohar added that the party intended to demonstrate peacefully.

“We are peaceful and we shall always remain peaceful,” he said.

Police on Sunday detained Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan in the eastern city of Lahore under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, according to an official administrative order.

The law allows authorities to place people in preventive detention if they are considered a threat to public order. Pakistani media reported on Monday that two other sisters, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan, had also been detained under the legislation.

Authorities have not publicly established whether their detention was directly connected to the planned Islamabad march.

“DEAD-END STREET“

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi separately warned the opposition against proceeding with the march, saying the government would enforce a Sept. 14 ruling by the Islamabad High Court.

The court had said political parties did not have the right to occupy roads, toll plazas, buildings or other public spaces in the capital, following repeated demonstrations that have previously paralyzed Islamabad and blocked access from other cities.

“They should not go into a situation, a dead-end street where there is no way back,” Naqvi said at a press conference.

“If they do go for a long march, then the Islamabad High Court’s order is in place and the government will have to act on it.”

Naqvi also criticized the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf administration in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for pursuing party politics while the region faced an intensified militant campaign that has killed civilians and security personnel.

Separately, Jamaat-e-Islami supporters began traveling from the southern port city of Karachi by train on Sunday. Party chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said they would travel through Sindh and Punjab provinces before proceeding by road to Islamabad.

The party has staged demonstrations in several cities since last month demanding the abolition of the petroleum levy as Pakistan repeatedly raises fuel prices amid the US-Iran war and Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.