PAKISTANI authorities blocked roads leading to the capital, Islamabad, and suspended mobile phone service in the city today in an attempt to prevent supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan from holding a rally.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government also deployed paramilitary rangers and additional police and shut schools in Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi after Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party refused to withdraw its call for the protest to demand its leader’s release.

Mr Khan’s supporters plan to march from the province to Islamabad, defying a ban on rallies imposed this week.