Tahir-ul- Qadri rejects it
In a bid to defuse Pakistan’s political crisis, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday agreed to face a case of murder of 14 supporters of cleric Tahir-ul- Qadri who rejected it saying terror charges should also be slapped on the Premier.
Police in lahore finally registered the murder case against Prime Minister Sharif, his brother and Punjab province Chief Minister Shahbaz, key Cabinet ministers and senior officials for their alleged role in the killing of Qadri’s supporters in the Model Town area, meeting a major demand of the fiery cleric.
“The FIR has been registered on the order of the lahore High Court (lHC),” Punjab police spokesperson Nabila Ghazanfar told PTI. She said the FIR had been registered on PAT’s application.
However, the cleric was not satisfied with the Government’s concession, saying “I do not accept this FIR, until the Terrorism Act is included in it.”
For the second time in three days, Pakistan’s powerful Army Chief Raheel Sharif met the Prime Minister on Thursday to discuss the over two weeks-long political turmoil.
The Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) discussed security matters and uncertainty created by the ongoing protests in the country, sources said.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Qadri have snapped communications with the official negotiators after the fifth round of talks failed to produce any result on Wednesday night.
Qadri termed supporters of PTI and his party as first cousins. He said that he and PTI Chairman Khan were brothers. Khan continued to demand Sharif’s resignation, saying “I will not leave here. I will not accept this monarchy. I want real democracy.”
“It has been decided that an FIR will be registered against Shahbaz Sharif, but he has decided that he will not resign,” he said.
Amid mounting pressure from the protesters, Sharif chaired a high-level meeting in the capital to discuss the current political crisis, media reports said.