Pakistan Seizes Cargo Containers to Barricade Islamabad Ahead of PTI’s October 4 March

Pakistan’s campaign to keep supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan out of the capital has reached as far as Karachi’s port, where a pile-up of shipping containers has left cargo stranded, according to Reuters.

Truckers are now refusing to drive north, fearing that police will seize their vehicles and take the containers to barricade Islamabad ahead of an October 4 march planned by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to demand his release from prison.

Steel shipping containers, packed with sand and welded together, have lined the roads into Islamabad for weeks. The march was originally set for September 27 before being postponed, Reuters reported. Police requisitioned more than 2,000 vehicles in September, many of them still loaded with cargo and held for days with little or no compensation.

Dawn newspaper’s reporting paints a similar picture: authorities have taken at least 2,700 vehicles and their crews into custody across Islamabad, Rawalpindi and cities in Punjab, with drivers held at police stations while their phones, vehicle documents and keys were confiscated. Transporters say many of the seized vehicles were carrying goods, including medicines, food items and chemicals.

“Right now, going toward Punjab is like committing suicide,” truck driver Javid ur Rehman, 35, told Reuters, referring to police seizures. Rana Mohammad Aslam, president of the Karachi Goods Carrier association, said the practice was hurting transporters already battling rising prices.

Pakistan’s home, information, commerce and finance ministries did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, and Punjab police and the provincial home department also did not respond.

Sources

Reuters – Cargo stacks up as Pakistan seizes containers to block capital routes: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/cargo-stacks-up-pakistan-seizes-containers-block-capital-routes-2026-10-02/

The News – Sealed off, again: https://www.thenews.pk/tns/detail/1438065-sealed-off-again