Murder charges filed against Sharif

The Pakistani police have registered a murder case against the country’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over his alleged involvement in the killing of supporters of a cleric leading massive anti-government protests in the capital Islamabad.

Police officer Sharif Sindhu said that the case, which was filed by Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) party on Thursday, names 20 other defendants, including Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz, who serves as the chief minister of the eastern province of Punjab, as well as other ministers and police officers.

On June 17, at least 14 people, including two women, were killed and more than 100 others injured after Pakistani police forces clashed with Qadri’s followers in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.

The clashes broke out when PAT members protested against the police that were trying to remove security barriers in front of the party’s headquarters in the Model Town neighborhood of the city.

Soon after the incident, the provincial government formed a single-member inquiry commission to probe into the incident, but the PAT boycotted the commission and filed a petition before the court to register a case against senior government officials, including Sharif.

Qadri, along with Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, has been leading daily anti-government rallies in the capital since August 14, calling on the government to resign.

Both opposition leaders have been protesting against alleged vote fraud in the last year’s parliamentary elections that brought Sharif to power.

Sharif has ordered the Supreme Court to set up an investigative team to look into the elections.

Speaking to their supporters late on Thursday, Qadri and Khan announced that army chief General Raheel Sharif has been appointed by Sharif as a “mediator” and “guarantor” to end the current political crisis in Pakistan.

The pair said they had given the prime minister 24 hours to meet their demands upon General Sharif’s assurances.

MP/MHB