Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday ordered troops to be deployed at sensitive areas in the capital as the threat by the opposition to go for a mass sit-in outside the Parliament neared, but the army said the deployment would take place “only if the situation warrants.”

The army said it had received a request from the government to deploy troops at sensitive locations to maintain law and order during the protest by lawyers and opposition parties.

The troops will remain on alert and will “move only if the situation warrants it”, chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told Dawn News channel.

He refused to identify the sensitive locations.

The lawyers’ movement and opposition parties, including former premier Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N, launched a “long march” on 12 March to pressure the ruling Pakistan People’s Party to reinstate judges deposed by former President Pervez Musharraf.

The organisers of the protest have said it will end with a sit-in near parliament but the government has said it will not let the demonstrators enter Islamabad.