Ousted Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has been booked by the police along with 150 others pertaining to the ‘Chor-Chor’ sloganeering against current PM Shehbaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia’s Madina, reported PTI quoting officials.
Among those booked by Pakistan Punjab Police, are some members of Imran Khan’s former cabinet, officials added.
Punjab police on Saturday night registered an FIR against Khan, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and 150 others, including former federal ministers Fawad Chaudhry and Sheikh Rasheed, a former adviser to the prime minister Shahbaz Gul, former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Soori, and Khan’s close aides in London, Anil Musarrat and Sahibzada Jehangir, officials said.
The FIR has been registered under different sections, including 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
As per the FIR documents, Imran Khan sent over 100 of his supporters to Saudi to target Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation. Khan and other nominated leaders of the PTI had given directions to party workers in this regard, it said.
About Shehbaz Sharif’s hounding in Saudi, video clips circulated on social media showed some pilgrims shouting chor’ (thief) and ‘gaddar’ (traitor) as soon as Sharif and other members of his delegation arrived at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina last Thursday.
The Pakistani pilgrims also used abusive language against the delegation members. Madina police claim to have arrested five Pakistanis involved in the sloganeering.
Imran Khan on the allegations
Khan in a TV interview on Saturday had distanced himself from the pilgrims who hounded and chanted slogans against Sharif, saying he could “not even imagine of asking anyone to carry out sloganeering at the sacred place.”
There has been widespread condemnation of the incident.
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