Criminal case registered against Nawaz Sharif

A Pakistani court on Saturday ordered police to register a case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and 10 others over the alleged killing of three political activists following government ordered crackdown against supporters of Imran Khan and cleric Tahir-ul Qadri on August 30. 

Three people were killed and over 500 others injured in clashes between police and supporters of Khan and Qadri last month during demonstrations against the government. They have been agitating since August 14 demanding Nawaz’s ouster. 

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had moved into the court after police had refused to register a case. 

Following the decision, PTI approached the police station next to PM’s secretariat where a First Information Report was registered against Nawaz, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, defence minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif, railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq and other senior police and administration officials. Earlier the Lahore high court had also ordered the registration of an FIR against the PML-N top leadership including Nawaz and his brother, Punjab’s CM Shahbaz Sharif, in connection with the 17 June  killing of 14 workers Qadri-led Pakistan Awami Tehreek. 

The Prime Minister also faces a disqualification case in the Supreme Court for lying in the national assembly on 29 August about the Army chief’s role as a facilitator for negotiations with the parties protesting in Islamabad. On Saturday, the court constituted a three-member bench which will hear the petition on 29 September.