Sunday night in Islamabad, the lights from thousands of mobile phones lit up the darkness as Imran Khan moved through the crowd atop a brightly colored vehicle. The scene was not a victory rally. It was a show of defiance from a man who had been removed as prime minister just one day earlier, and from the hundreds of thousands of supporters who took to the streets across Pakistan to reject his ouster.
This was not a fringe protest. In Karachi, the southern Arabian Sea port city, a massive crowd shouted slogans promising Khan’s return to power. One placard read: “No to imported government.” The chant that rose from the crowd was blunt: “Any friend of America is a traitor.” In the eastern city of Lahore, crowds chanted against a “foreign conspiracy” to overthrow an elected government. In northern Peshawar, women and children turned out in solidarity with the ousted leader.
The message from the streets was clear. But the political reality is more complicated.
The no-trust vote that removed Khan was parliamentary and constitutional. Yet the dominant narrative on the streets Sunday was not about domestic politics. It was about foreign interference. Khan had spent weeks before his ouster claiming the United States was behind a plot to remove him. His supporters are now echoing that claim, and the protests carried the weight of that accusation.
This is where the analysis must go beyond what the crowds chanted. The “imported government” label — the idea that any replacement for Khan will be a foreign-installed puppet — is a powerful political weapon. It reframes a domestic power struggle as a national betrayal. It turns a vote count in parliament into an act of treason. And it gives Khan’s supporters a cause that transcends the usual party politics.
Youth made up the backbone of the crowds. These are not old-guard political loyalists. They are young Pakistanis who saw Khan as a break from the dynastic politics of the Sharif and Bhutto families. They were the ones waving large party flags and vowing support. Their energy was real. Their anger was real. And they will not simply accept the new government as legitimate.
The protests were not limited to Pakistan. Thousands of Khan’s supporters held demonstrations in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. In London, they converged on Hyde Park and outside the home of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. They pledged to oppose any “im” — the report cuts off, but the intent is clear. They are mobilizing for a long fight.
The political opposition in Pakistan is preparing to install Khan’s replacement. That process is moving forward. But the crowds on Sunday suggest that the new government will face a legitimacy crisis from day one. A leader who can pull hundreds of thousands into the streets in a single night does not simply fade away. Khan has been removed from office, not from politics.
The question now is whether the protests will remain peaceful and whether they will grow. In Karachi, the crowd was described as massive. In Islamabad, the lights from supporters lit up the night sky. These are not small numbers. And if the new government is seen as moving too slowly on elections, or as cracking down on dissent, the anger in those crowds could become something more volatile.
One local party activist in Islamabad, Ambareen Turk, summed up the mood: “In a democratic system, the final voice will be the voice of the people. And the voice of the people is Imran Khan.” That is a claim the new government will have to confront — not in parliament, but on the streets.
