Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offers to face murder case

ISLAMABAD: 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 HC,” 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 Army Chief Raheel Sharif met the Prime Minister to discuss the over two weeks-long political turmoil. The PM and the Chief of Army Staff discussed security matters and uncertainty created by the ongoing protests, sources said.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman 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 last night. Qadri termed supporters of PTI and his party as first cousins. He said that he and PTI Chairman Khan were brothers.

“Today is the day to get freedom from economic and social exploitation. More than 100 million poor of this country are slaves of this corrupt and unjust system,” the PAT chief said. “Our rulers have money when it comes to corruption, buying journalists...and living a lavish life style...but, there is no money to resolve issues concerning poor masses of the country,” Qadri said.