ISLAMABAD // Wielding batons and firing rounds of tear gas, Pakistani riot police on Friday clashed with stone-throwing supporters of Imran Khan who rallied in the capital in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations.
The clashes erupted as supporters of the cricketer-turned-politician’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf opposition party tried to make their way toward his residence in Islamabad for a rally he had called for the previous evening.
The violence prompted Mr Khan to announce he would go ahead with a planned “million man march” in the capital on Wednesday to force the prime minister Nawaz Sharif to resign.
Mr Khan said he was not afraid of arrest.
“Even if you send me to jail, I will come back to lead rallies against you,” he said, addressing Mr Sharif.
He said police were not allowing him to leave his residence.
There were also skirmishes between Mr Khan’s supporters and police in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, in Karachi and Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province. Police detained dozens of Tehrik-e-Insaf activists across Pakistan.
Public pressure has mounted on Mr Sharif to step down since his family members were named as holders of offshore bank accounts in leaked financial documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Mr Sharif, serving his third term as prime minister, has refused to quit but says he will face an investigation to prove he and his family were not involved in corruption.
The supreme court has reportedly settled on a panel of judges who will hear the case on Mr Sharif’s family’s offshore accounts next week. Mr Khan’s party is one of the five petitioners that requested the court look into the scandal. The top court has asked Mr Sharif to issue a response to the allegations against him.
Mr Khan held months-long rallies in Islamabad in 2014 to force Mr Sharif to quit over alleged rigging of national elections in 2013. The former cricket star suspended his party’s protests after a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December in which 150 people were killed, mostly children.
* Associated Press
