‘Containerabad’: Pakistan’s capital and truckers bleed money amid lockdown

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Islamabad has again been ringed with shipping containers and blocked roads as Pakistani authorities prepare for an opposition march by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. The barriers have been in place for nearly four weeks, and officials and transport groups estimate that between 1,500 and 2,000 containers are being used across the capital and nearby areas. The article says the disruption has revived a familiar pattern in which the city is heavily sealed off ahead of PTI rallies.

The report says the security operation has become costly. Islamabad police initially sought about 820 million rupees for the week of preparations, with the total later expected to exceed 1 billion rupees after the protest was postponed. Al Jazeera also notes a separate government disclosure from March 2025 showing 1.35 billion rupees spent on law-and-order deployments in Islamabad over five years, though that reply did not break out container costs.

Transport owners and drivers told Al Jazeera they are losing money while their vehicles and containers are held up. One association representative said idle truck-container combinations can lose 30,000 to 40,000 rupees a day, while the government says legitimate rentals are paid through official accounts. The dispute matters because it highlights the financial burden of recurring protest lockdowns, as well as the tension between public order measures and the rights and livelihoods of transport businesses.