Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister rallied Monday in the country’s volatile northwest to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his immediate release, officials said.

The protest is part of Imram Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI opposition party’s campaign aimed at pressuring the current government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to free him without any further delay.

The rally was held in Swabi, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Khan’s party rules.

More than 10,000 supporters of Khan were seen waving the party’s flags and chanting slogans in his favor in Swabi. Top party leaders in their speeches told the demonstrators that Khan would soon be among them, though they did not elaborate.

It was one of the biggest protests since 2022 when Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in the parliament.

Ali Amin Gundapur, the chief minister in the province, asked the demonstrators to get ready for a march on Islamabad in the coming weeks, as PTI plans to hold a big protest in the capital later this month or early next month. He said PTI would defy any ban if it was not allowed to hold the rally in the nation's capital.

Khan was arrested on August 5, 2023, after a court in Islamabad handed him a 3-year jail sentence in a graft case. Despite his multiple convictions, Khan remains a leading figure.

In recent months, all of his convictions have been either suspended or overthrown. However, the former premier will remain behind bars as he awaits a slew of cases pending against him, which his party says are fake and politically motivated.

Sharif’s government has denied those accusations, saying Khan has been given the chance of a fair trial.

End/UNB/AP/MB