KARACHI, Sept 12: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan failed to lead a rally in defiance of the Sindh government orders on Wednesday as authorities bundled him off to Islamabad just 30 minutes after he had landed at Karachi’s Jinnah Terminal.

About a dozen workers of his party who had gathered at the airport to welcome him were arrested. The workers, led by the party’s Sindh president Zubair Khan, had reached the airport after breaking through barriers put up on roads from Sharea Faisal to the Jinnah Terminal.

Imran Khan, who arrived by a PIA flight, was forced to board an Islamabad-bound Shaheen Airlines plane after a brief confrontation with security personnel.

Agencies add: In Islamabad, Imran Khan said it was his right to visit any part of the country.

“It is a total violation of my fundamental rights guaranteed in the constitution,” he said after leading a demonstration in the capital against the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

He said 300 of his party’s workers had been arrested in Karachi.

“I will appeal in the court of law against the action by MQM.”