Police, opposition supporters clash ahead of rally in Pakistan's Lahore city

By Aamir Latif and Kiran Butt

KARACHI/LAHORE, Pakistan (AA) – Police and opposition activists clashed in Pakistan's northwestern city of Lahore ahead of a protest rally on Wednesday, officials and local media reported.

Stick-wielding supporters of the main opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), pelted police with stones and burned old tyres.

They also smashed some private and police vehicles while the law enforcers fired tear gas to disperse them.

Footage aired on local broadcaster Geo News showed a couple of smashed vehicles lying abandoned on a road, while police chased the protesters.

The police, many of whom were in riot gear, baton-charged and used water cannons to disperse the protesters, who continued pelting stones with short gaps.

The PTI planned a rally to what it called "support the judiciary," whereas the government invoked a controversial law that prohibits gatherings of five or more people at one point in order to apparently disrupt the event.

The police blocked roads leading to PTI chief and former Prime Minister Imran Khan's residence in Zaman Park, Lahore, by placing empty containers and parking trucks.

Fawad Chaudhry, the PTI's vice president and former information minister, claimed that police injured and arrested "dozens" of party workers, including women.

However, police confirmed over a dozen arrests.

Khan, who was thrown out of power through a no-trust vote in April last year, has been on the streets, demanding snap elections, which are scheduled for October this year.

The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has time and again rejected the call for early elections.

The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician, who accused the US of being behind his unceremonious ouster, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a "long-march" to the capital Islamabad in November last year.

- Punjab polls

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan has announced the much-awaited date for elections in the northeastern Punjab province, which will take place on April 30.

Election activities, according to the electoral authority, will begin on March 12 with the submission of candidacies.

This is the first time in the country's 75-year political history that provincial assembly elections will be held months before the general elections, which are scheduled for October this year.

The elections in Punjab, the country's bellwether province, will take place after the PTI dissolved his government and the provincial assembly in January this year in an attempt to pave the way for early elections.