Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, has postponed its planned long march on Islamabad by one week to 4 October, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi saying the delay was a deliberate tactic to place further strain on the military-backed government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The postponement comes amid an extraordinary security crackdown in the capital, where authorities have deployed more than 22,000 police and security personnel, blocked roads with over 1,000 spiked shipping containers, closed major motorways including the Islamabad-Peshawar M-1, and imposed a two-month ban on public gatherings — measures that analysts estimate could cost the government over one billion Pakistani rupees. PTI, which has been demanding Khan's release from Adiala jail (where he has been held since 2023 on corruption charges he denies), says the crackdown — which has included the arrest of Khan's three sisters and the detention of dozens of party leaders — only underscores what it calls an illegitimate and unpopular government's fear of popular protest, while rights group the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has urged authorities to de-escalate and release those arbitrarily detained.