Journalist Imtiaz Gul claimed on Monday that the government is paying Rs25 million daily as rent for shipping containers seized and put up long before the start of Imran Khan’s protest march. The containers have been placed at key points to barricade the capital before the arrival of marchers led by PTI chief Imran Khan.

Gul made the claim while speaking to Aaj News morning show host Sidra Iqbal on Aaj Pakistan.

“Yesterday, while I was passing through Islamabad, the city felt like it was in a state of war even though the man they are hunting for was still in Lahore,” he said.

Gul said that the government has deployed between 25,000 to 30,000 security personnel at various points in the city. The manpower has been buttressed by blocking of key access point through shipping containers. He added that the containers, numbering between 700 to 800, were seized almost a month ago. “Some of them still have goods inside,” he added.

He added that the seizure of containers started at the beginning of October “even though Imran said that he would announce the date of his march at the end of the month”.

He accused the Islamabad administration of turning the renting of containers into a ‘lucrative’ business due to the involvement of commission in the transaction.