OUSTED former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan vowed to march on the capital Islamabad yesterday, issuing the government with an ultimatum to call a new election within six days. 

He said millions of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters would mobilise in support of the demand, with the government insisting it will not hold fresh elections. 

“I want to give a message to this imported government to announce elections within six days. Dissolve the assemblies and call an election in June,” he told crowds of supporters. 

He was given a boost after the country’s Supreme Court denied a government petition to charge Mr Khan with contempt for violating court rulings regard to his party’s Azadi march.

On Wednesday, the court ordered the federal government and the PTI to meet at 10pm that night to discuss and agree the peaceful and safe conduct of the “long march to Islamabad.”

Both sides claim the other did not turn up to the negotiations, with the government filing charges against Mr Khan in a bid to block the rally which went ahead as planned.  

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had previously promised to stop Mr Khan’s supporters from entering the capital, calling the rally an attempt to “divide the nation and promote chaos.”

But Mr Khan remained defiant. “No amount of state oppression and fascism by this imported government can stop or deter our march,” he said as he led hundreds of thousands into Islamabad.

At least five PTI supporters are believed to have been killed by Pakistan’s security forces in a violent clampdown which gridlocked the capital. 

Mr Khan was elected prime minister in 2018, as the Pakistani public broke with the dynastic polices of the past. 

But he was removed from power after a vote of no-confidence last month which he insists was a US-backed coup triggered by his independent foreign policy.

Before the vote he detailed an alleged plot to kill him and accused the US embassy in Pakistan of issuing threats against him unless he changed course and adopted more Washington-friendly policies.

Mr Khan has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has ruled out imposing sanctions.