Thousands March to Islamabad Demanding Prime Minister Sharif Step Down

Thousands of Pakistanis joined a march to the capital  Islamabad on Thursday to pressurize the prime minister to stand down for alleged vote fraud. Fears are rife that the rally might just turn into a coup if it gains ground.

The rally was called by Imran Khan of the Tehrik-e-Insaf party, and an influential religious leader, Tahir ul-Qadri and is the strongest challenge to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's one-year-old government.

People are joining the already strong crowd on foot, motorbikes and cars, which started in Lahore and the numbers are slowly growing from  the last count of 5000, reports the Associated Press.

Khan's PTI is demanding a re-election as according to him the 2013 general elections results were rigged. The PTI won 34 seats in the general assembly compared to  189 of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Qadri is a Canada-based religious leader and wants Sharif to step down because of corruption. He had called for a separate march.

"Thousands are present at both marches, although both are moving at a snail's pace, It has taken, for example, about four hours for Khan's convoy to cover about 4km," Al Jazeera reports.

Thousands of policemen have been deployed along the rally's rout  and all entry points to the capital have been blocked.

"We are taking measures to secure the capital from any violence," said police official Jamil Hashmi, reports the Times Of Inida..

The Pakistani government is in a huddle to meet any contingency and has also invoked a constitutional article allowing the  military to step in to maintain law and order if needed, reports the TOI.