Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s supporters staged protest rallies in several parts of the country on Wednesday to mark three years of his imprisonment, defying police crackdown.
In Punjab province, the police arrested more than 20 workers of Khan’s political party for staging a demonstration.
The 73-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August 5, 2023, after being convicted in a corruption case. There are several cases against him – and convictions in some of them were either suspended or overturned. But he remains in prison pending trial in other cases.
Khan’s party workers sought permission from the authorities to organise rallies in several locations across Pakistan’s four provinces on Wednesday.
Permissions were denied in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces, following which a gathering in Peshawar emerged as the centrepiece of the party’s campaign, primarily demanding Khan’s release.
At least two of Khan’s sisters are expected to address the gathering in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is in power.
Despite being refused permission elsewhere, the leadership of the party asked its workers in regional units to organise rallies, senior party leader Sheikh Waqas Akram said.
That led to police crackdowns, and arrests were reported in Punjab. “But we will come out for him (Khan),” Akram added.
Party lawyer Abuzar Salman Niazi said, “Punjab Police have arrested over 20 workers in Mianwali, hometown of Imran Khan, stopping them from coming out to demand the release of their leader.”
Senior party leader and former federal minister Moonis Elahi said Khan has endured “every kind of hardship” during his imprisonment, alleging that he has been denied family meetings and proper medical treatment.
Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s acting regional director for South Asia, said Pakistan’s authorities had “systematically denied Imran Khan the right to a fair trial, subjected him to prolonged solitary confinement, and limited his access to medical care and visitation rights”.
She also said Khan had not been allowed to meet his family for more than eight months and that both he and his wife, Bushra Bibi, had been denied regular access to legal counsel since December 2025.
