PTI, PML-N come face to face outside Nawaz Sharif's residence in London

• PML-N supporters gathered outside Avenfield apartments to celebrate Imran Khan's removal before PTI supporters arrived.
• On instructions of Imran Khan, PTI UK’s leadership had announced that a protest will be held at Hyde Park Corner in London.
• Instead of marching towards American embassy, the went to protest outside Avenfield flats.

LONDON: PTI and PML-N supporters confronted each other during a rowdy demonstration outside Avenfield apartments a day after Imran Khan was voted out of power.

On instructions of Imran Khan, PTI UK’s leadership had announced that a protest will be held at Hyde Park Corner which will then march towards the American embassy but the organisers decided not to head there and instead assembled out at the Avenfield flats first and then moved from there to the Pakistan High Commission.

PTI’s supporters came from all over the UK and gathered in Hyde Park where emotional speeches were delivered for about two hours. The protestors then moved to Avenfield flats — located just five minutes away — where supporters of PML-N had already gathered to celebrate the possible election of Shahbaz Sharif as the next prime minister of Pakistan and the ouster of Imran Khan.

Outside the residence of Nawaz Sharif’s sons Hasan and Hussain Nawaz, supporters from both sides faced each other during a charged protest which lasted for over three hours.

PTI’s protestors raised slogans to protest the ouster of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan through a vote of no confidence.

PM Imran Khan was ousted on Saturday after he lost the vote of no confidence in the National Assembly. Supporters were carrying banners showing support for Imran Khan and alleging that he has been removed through a “foreign conspiracy” – a claim made by Imran Khan which has been denied by Pakistan’s top security sources.

Imran Khan’s supporters said that Imran Khan should have remained in power till 2028 and was only driven out by the "corrupt" and “sellouts” bending to pressure from the US government. They said that the US government had conspired with the Opposition parties as well as PTI’s own dissidents to remove Imran Khan from power. The protestors called Pakistan’s entire Opposition and dissident PTI lawmakers “traitors”.

PML-N workers had arranged a dhol since morning and the dholists played to the full capacity, drowning out slogans of PTI till the time they left.

Around 50 policemen remained on the scene throughout the protest. They separated the two sides and didn’t let them come close to each other, restricting them to their columns on the street outside the Avenfield flats. PTI pelted eggs onto the PML-N crowd who responded by throwing bottles of water toward the PTI’s gathering.

PTI leaders didn’t explain why they decided not to go to the US embassy for the protest as originally planned.

PTI workers raised slogans saying "imported government not accepted”, “No Imran, no remittances”, “traitors”, and “no to regime change,” while PML-N supporters responded by chanting "losers, losers", “Aleema Baaji is a thief” and “arrest Farah Gogi”.