Former Pakistan PM Khan faces court

Khan's detention follows months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.

Some protesters took out their wrath on the military, torching the residence of the corps commander in Lahore and laying siege at the entrance to the army's general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan politicians have frequently been arrested and jailed since the country's founding in 1947, but few have so directly challenged a military that has staged at least three coups and had ruled for more than three decades.

In Peshawar, a mob razed the Chaghi monument -- a mountain-shaped sculpture honouring the location of Pakistan's first nuclear test.

Several memorials to service members killed on active duty were also vandalised.

Police fought pitched battles with supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in cities across the country for hours on Tuesday night.

Local media reported two deaths in those clashes, while police said at least 150 people had been arrested.

Tempers appeared to have cooled on Wednesday morning but there was a huge security presence across the capital, particularly outside the so-called police lines where the special court will convene.

Authorities also ordered schools closed across the country and continued restricting access to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

"At a time we are already struggling to feed our children, further uncertainty has been created," Farooq Bhatti, a van driver, said  in Rawalpindi Wednesday morning.

"The violence will not serve anyone... everyone will be affected... but I doubt the decision makers care."

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice chairman of the PTI, urged supporters to keep protesting in a "lawful and peaceful manner", adding party lawyers would file multiple appeals and petitions against Khan's arrest.

Khan's lawyers were told on Wednesday to wait outside the police HQ compound from where they would be escorted to the makeshift court.