Islamabad braced for huge Imran Khan-led protest against Sharif
Islamabad braced for massive street protests as former cricketer turned politician says his supporters will stay until fresh elections called
Pakistan is bracing itself for massive street protests in the capital, Islamabad, this week amid a political crisis that has seen cities' petrol supplies cut, clashes between police and the followers of a controversial cleric in Lahore, and demands by politician and former cricketer Imran Khan for the government to quit.
The chaos and political uncertainly comes a little more than a year after a landslide election victory swept Nawaz Sharif, a conservative businessman, to power for the third time.
If [the police] try to stop peaceful protest then there is going to be violence
Sharif's thumping parliamentary majority sparked a rare outbreak of optimism among Pakistan watchers who dared to hope the new prime minister had the mandate to achieve his aims of reviving a broken economy, making peace with India and tackling Islamist militancy.
But in the 14 months since he took office, Sharif's authority has been undermined by Pakistan's powerful military, Canada-based cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri and Khan - a demagogue politician who claims Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League rigged the election.
Khan has vowed to bring Islamabad to a standstill on Thursday, the county's independence day, when huge numbers of his supporters will flood into the capital. He has vowed that they will remain until the government steps down and fresh elections are called.
Khan's antics have baffled many analysts and diplomats who are unconvinced the election was so flawed that Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was denied victory. Most international observers judged the 2013 polls to have been considerably better than previous general elections.
"We didn't reject the election results immediately because we thought we could get relief from the courts," said senior PTI leader Shafqat Mahmood. "But now we have decided that everything we tried in parliament and the courts has not worked and so we have no recourse but to launch a huge protest."