SWABI: Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway (M-1) was reopened to traffic after five days in small hours of Wednesday as police launched crackdown on workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to implement the order of Peshawar High Court about reopening of roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Major roads and entry and exit points of the province were closed by protesting workers of PTI, who were demanding of government to government to shift founder of their party and former prime minister Imran Khan from Adiala Jail to hospital for his medical treatment.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, talks between officials and PTI leaders for reopening of the motorway remained inconclusive.

Officials told Dawn that under a well-planned strategy, police were deployed from Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera and Swabi to clear the motorway of protesters. They said crackdown was launched at 2am, vacating the rest area of motorway from PTI workers, and those, who resisted, were dealt with an iron hand.

No leader of party arrested during crackdown

Liaqat Ali, a spokesperson for Swabi police, said that an announcement was made through loudspeaker, warning protesters and giving them an hour an hour for leaving the motorway.

Police officials said that they took the action on order of court, clearing the motorway and major highways.

The sit-in of PTI near Swabi Interchange, which continued for the last five days, ended with forceful removal of blockades and evicting the protesting workers from the rest area of the motorway.

“Traffic has been restored on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway. Police removed obstacles and restored smooth traffic flow. The road was cleared by heavy contingent of police,” said an official, who took part in the crackdown.

Liaqat Ali said that police did not face any resistance as PTI workers themselves started wrapping tents etc and left the motorway, ending blockade. “Police did not arrest anyone,” he added.

However, sources said police resorted to baton charges and several PTI workers were arrested. The arrested workers of PTI were shifted to different police stations, they added.

They said that soon after failure of parleys on Tuesday, police had started closing filling stations and stalls. When the negotiations were over, all key leaders of PTI disappeared, leaving workers clueless, they added.

“It was expected that the crackdown would be launched before midnight. However, police exhausted the PTI workers and launched the crackdown quite late to avoid from any untoward incident,” another official told Dawn.

Source said that PTI leaders were leading the protest but Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and Asad Qaiser were claiming that they had not given any call for protest and the protesters were common people, who came out of their homes for Imran Khan, who was denied proper treatment of his eye.

In Swabi rest area where PTI leaders and workers had blocked the motorway, Mardan commissioner along Swabi deputy commissioner held talks with PTI leaders led by Shafi Jan, special assistant to chief minister. At the end, it was announced that the talks had failed to produce any tangible result.

PTI Swabi tehsil president Jehanzeb Khan, the only leader of the party present on motorway after launch of crackdown, said that the motorway was reopened to traffic. “There is a big difference between PTI and other political parties. PTI accepts orders of court while other political parties do not obey court’s verdicts,” he claimed.

He said that it was the decision of youth wing of the party to launch a protest and they were standing with them.

However, leaders of opposition parties in KP said that claims by PTI leaders were different ground realities. They said that the sit-in ended in utter failure. They said that in fact PTI leaders were looking for a face saving but that was also not managed.

Awami National Party (ANP) leader Mukhtiar Khan told Dawn that PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar had asked workers of his party to reach motorway in Swabi for protest.

“The whole drama has made clear that PTI leadership adopted a policy of saying one thing and doing other to save their own skin and leave workers high and dry,” he said.

Stranded trucks have restarted journey after their five-day forced stay on roadside.

“We breathed a sigh of relief because there was a lot of traffic pressure on the roads including Swabi-Jahangira Road, Swabi-Topi Road and Swabi Mardan Road,” Swabi traffic police chief Janab Ali told Dawn after reopening of the motorway.

The drivers of stranded heavy vehicles welcomed reopening of motorway because they waited for five days. Soon after reopening of the motorway, they started their journey to reach their destinations, saying that they faced huge financial losses.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2026