Islamabad and Rawalpindi Roads Before 8 October: No Closure Notice on 7 October

As of the morning of Wednesday 7 October 2026, no road into Islamabad or Rawalpindi showed a closure on the Motorway Police board. The M-1, the M-2 and the GT Road from Peshawar listed no closure, and no official notice stops the Metrobus, mobile internet or schools on Thursday 8 October. Read the board again before you leave.

Thursday matters because of the PTI march. According to reports, it is due at Khairabad on 8 October, on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab border. That is not Islamabad. No date for reaching the capital has been given, so we are not describing 8 October as an Islamabad march day.

This page records what official sources showed on 7 October, and what is only reported. It is a commuter check, not a comment on anyone's politics. For the position on Tuesday, see our 6 October roads report.

Motorways into Islamabad listed no closure on 7 October

The National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) travel board listed no closure on the M-1 from Peshawar, the M-2 from Kot Momin or the GT Road from Peshawar when we read it at about 06:06 PKT on 7 October. The M-14 near Dera Ismail Khan still had two northbound lanes shut.

Rain was listed on the M-2 near Islamabad. That is a weather warning, not a closure, but wet roads slow the morning drive. Further south, the M-2 had road work closures at Shadiwal and near Sheikhupura. These are routine works.

The board changes through the day. Each road shows its own "Last updated" time, and the clock runs a few minutes ahead of ours. A road that shows nothing at 06:00 can look different at noon. That is what happened in late September, when the M-1 and M-14 were shut both ways for days, as our September motorway closure report records.

Islamabad's own roads have no official closure notice

We found no traffic notice on the Islamabad Capital Police website, the Islamabad Traffic Police website or the Capital Development Authority's public notices page. The newest police items dated 6 October were about officer welfare, missing children and an IGP visit. The CDA's latest public notice was dated 5 October.

Containers were placed at Faizabad, 26 Number Chungi, T-Chowk and Margalla Avenue in late September, as we noted on our 4 October containers report. Whether they are still there is not in any official source we could read. Police said on 5 October that no road into any area of Islamabad was closed and that Red Zone entry was cut to one or two points, according to reports.

We could not read the police and traffic police accounts on X, where closures are usually posted first. So treat the absence of a notice as "none found", not "none issued". Call Islamabad Traffic Police on 1915 before you leave.

The march is reported to reach Khairabad on 8 October, not Islamabad

PTI's convoy, led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, is reported to move through Peshawar on 7 October and on from Charsadda Interchange on 8 October. It is due to gather at Khairabad, where the next phase is to be announced, according to reports.

PTI has not posted the schedule on an official page we could find, so every date here is reported. Movement on some roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also reported banned under Section 144. The second round of government and PTI talks is where the two sides' positions were set out on 3 October.

Metrobus, mobile internet and schools: no notice found

We found no official notice stopping the Rawalpindi Islamabad Metrobus, mobile internet or schools for Thursday 8 October. It is a normal working and school day unless your school or employer says otherwise.

The Punjab Masstransit Authority's website lists the Metrobus from 6am to 10pm at a Rs 30 fare, with no suspension notice when we read it at about 06:15 PKT on 7 October. Its Rawalpindi helpline is (051) 111-222-627. PTA's press release page did not load its list for us, so we could not check the newest notice there. In September, mobile data was cut in parts of the twin cities, as we recorded in our mobile internet suspension report.

The Federal Directorate of Education homepage showed no closure order, but we could not read its news page. A visit by the UN Secretary-General runs from 6 to 8 October, the Foreign Office says, so expect extra security in the Red Zone and on routes near the diplomatic enclave. We found no traffic plan for it.

Five checks before you travel on 8 October

Read the Motorway Police board just before you leave, then call the helpline for your route. Allow extra time near the Red Zone and Faizabad, and do not rely on Wednesday's reading for Thursday.

1. Open the NHMP travel advisory and check the "Last updated" time under your road.
2. Call NHMP on 130 for motorway and GT Road questions.
3. Call Islamabad Traffic Police on 1915 for roads inside the city.
4. Leave 30 minutes early if your route passes the Red Zone, Faizabad or 26 Number Chungi.
5. Save an offline map and carry some cash in case mobile data slows down.

Our motorway status check explains how to read the NHMP board line by line.

Common questions

Is the M-1 motorway open on 8 October 2026?

We cannot say yet. On the morning of 7 October the NHMP board listed no closure on the M-1. Check it again on Thursday before you leave.

Are Islamabad roads closed on 8 October?

We found no official closure notice. Police said on 5 October that no road into any area of Islamabad was closed, according to reports.

Will the PTI march reach Islamabad on 8 October?

Not according to the reported plan, which ends at Khairabad on 8 October. No date for reaching Islamabad has been given.

Is the Metrobus running in Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Thursday?

No suspension had been announced when we read the Punjab Masstransit Authority website on 7 October.

Will mobile internet be suspended on 8 October?

We found no notice from the PTA, but its press page did not load for us. Calls and SMS usually keep working if data is cut.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked at about 06:15 PKT on Wednesday 7 October 2026. We read the NHMP travel advisory at 06:06 PKT, the Punjab Masstransit Authority website, the Islamabad Capital Police and Islamabad Traffic Police websites, the Capital Development Authority's public notices page and the Foreign Office curtain raiser for the UN Secretary-General's visit. The march schedule, the police statement, the containers and the Section 144 orders come from news reports, because the official accounts on X, the PTA press page and the FDE news page could not be read by us. We will update this if roads close.