Highways reopen in northwest Pakistan after protests by Imran Khan’s party end

The party of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, has called off its sit-ins across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leading to the reopening of major highways linking the northwestern province with neighboring Punjab, officials said.

Police in KP said traffic resumed on several key arteries after protesters were dispersed.

They cited reopened sections of the motorway near Swabi, Bhakkar Road in Dera Ismail Khan, roads in Lakki Marwat and Mianwali, the Hazara Motorway, Haveli Interchange in Abbottabad, Kohat Road near Khushal Garh, Yarik Toll Plaza, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor interchange in Upper Kohistan, the Karakoram Highway toward Gilgit, and the Khairabad Bridge on the Grand Trunk Road in Attock.

Police said a court had directed authorities to reopen all blocked roads.

“In compliance with the court’s orders, we have restored traffic on the affected routes,” officials said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said the roads were reopened after negotiations with the administration and at the request of local residents to ease public hardship. It added that the sit-ins themselves would continue.

A day earlier, the Peshawar High Court ordered police and the local administration to reopen all blocked roads, calling the closures a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of movement.

However, the court today disposed off the petitions challenging provincial road closures after police submitted a report confirming that all blocked roads had been reopened.

The directive followed petitions challenging the road blockades by political workers.

PTI supporters began staging sit-ins on Friday after reports circulated that Khan had suffered severe vision loss in his right eye.

Those claims were later addressed in medical briefings, according to case records cited during court proceedings.

The protests spread to more than seven locations across KP, disrupting key road links between the province and neighboring Punjab.