ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will close major roads linking its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Islamabad and neighboring Punjab from Wednesday evening, motorway police said, ahead of a planned march on the capital by supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.

The restrictions cover the main motorway between Peshawar, the KP provincial capital, and Islamabad, as well as a major highway crossing the Indus River near the KP–Punjab boundary. Other closures affect routes used to travel from southern and northern KP toward the capital. Authorities have not said when the roads will reopen.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which rules KP, has called a September 27 march on Islamabad to demand his release. The government has warned against the protest and placed barriers around Islamabad and on approaches from KP. The motorway police advisory does not state why the roads are being closed, although Pakistani media have linked the restrictions to preparations for the march.

“From Wednesday evening, September 23, the M-1 motorway will remain closed to all types of traffic in both directions between the Islamabad toll plaza and Chach Interchange,” the National Highways and Motorway Police said in an advisory.

Chach Interchange is in Attock district, near the boundary with KP. Closing the motorway between there and Islamabad blocks the usual motorway approach to the capital for traffic traveling from Peshawar. A separate Islamabad police advisory says the M-1 closure starts at 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Motorway police also announced a closure on the M-14, which connects the Islamabad region with Dera Ismail Khan in southern KP, and on the N-5 highway at Attock Khurd, where the road crosses the Indus between Punjab and KP. The traffic advisory shared with Arab News lists restrictions on the Hazara Motorway, which serves northern KP, and on the Rawalpindi–Kohat and Abbottabad–Hassanabdal roads.

The closures threaten major routes into and out of KP, but the adviseries do not establish that every road between the province and the rest of the country will be impassable. Islamabad police say the M-2 motorway between the capital and Lahore will remain open. Motorway police have advised travelers to check current conditions before setting out, including through their helpline, 130.

Khan has been jailed since 2023. His party says the cases against him are politically motivated. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has warned the party against marching on Islamabad and said the government would act if the protest goes ahead.