By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s main opposition alliance and the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday called for countrywide protests on Friday to demand his immediate transfer to a hospital, the release of political prisoners and relief from soaring inflation and sharply higher petroleum prices.
The protests, set for all district headquarters, were announced jointly by the Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), a multi-party opposition bloc, and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after separate but coordinated meetings. Senior leaders said the demonstrations would be in response to the government’s failure to address economic hardship, governance breakdowns and the prolonged detention of opposition figures, including Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi.
The announcement came after a parliamentary party meeting of the PTI and a high-level TTAP gathering the previous day. Speaking at a news conference outside Parliament House, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser and PTI parliamentary leader Shahid Khattak said the decisions had been endorsed unanimously. “The entire party and the people of Pakistan are deeply concerned about the health of former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi,” Qaiser told reporters. He said protests would target “inflation, the increase in petroleum prices, concerns over the health of PTI founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi, demands for their transfer to hospital, the release of political prisoners, and the restoration of fundamental human rights.”
Qaiser added that the party would stage demonstrations during parliamentary sessions if the government continued an adversarial stance toward the opposition. “If the same attitude towards the opposition continues in parliament, the opposition will not allow the House to function,” he warned. He also criticized the forthcoming budget as an “anti-poor” measure that would impose additional taxes on an already strained public, and said the government’s domestic and foreign policies had fueled rising terrorism and strained ties with Afghanistan, hurting business in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Khattak, calling the government “incompetent,” urged it to apologize to the public and said those responsible for election rigging through “Form 47” — a reference to disputed constituency results after the 2024 vote — would be held accountable. “We will go to the court of the people on Friday and I invite people from across the country to participate in the protests,” he said.
A separate TTAP statement issued after a Monday meeting chaired by Mehmood Khan Achakzai, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, supported the demands. The session, attended by Senate opposition leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, PTI secretary general Salman Akram Raja, senior lawyer Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and other alliance figures, expressed “serious concern” over the country’s deteriorating economy, law and order, inflation and unemployment.
The participants said the government has “completely failed” in its basic responsibilities. They highlighted 18-hour electricity load-shedding, hardships faced by farmers, the lack of support for laborers and the heavy burden on the salaried class. The upcoming budget, they said, would be an “IMF budget” that would place yet more economic pressure on ordinary Pakistanis.
The statement paid tribute to all political prisoners, including Khan, “who they said were making sacrifices for democracy and the supremacy of the Constitution.” It condemned the “unconstitutional and illegal treatment” of opposition parties and demanded the immediate release of all political detainees, specifically naming Sunni Ittehad Council chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza, rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch and former lawmaker Ali Wazir.
Expressing “grave concern” over reports about Khan’s health, the alliance demanded that he and Bibi be shifted immediately to a hospital in line with jail rules, that family members and political associates be allowed to meet them, and that restrictions on wheat and flour transport from Punjab be lifted. It also called for the withdrawal of the petroleum levy and an end to electricity and gas load-shedding.
Khan, 74, has been held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since August 2023 on multiple charges that his supporters insist are politically motivated. He has been receiving treatment for an ongoing eye condition. In April he underwent a fourth intravitreal injection at the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, where doctors reported signs of clinical improvement. PTI leaders have repeatedly pressed for his transfer to a hospital under the care of physicians of his choice, citing inadequate medical facilities in prison. Government and jail authorities have rejected those requests and denied allegations of mistreatment.
The protests come against a backdrop of acute economic strain. A surge in global oil prices and disruptions in commodity supplies — linked to the US-Israel war on Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes — have driven inflation higher and forced the government to raise petrol prices by approximately 45 percent per liter.
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